Notes from Chris

Episode 3127

Welcome to Throwback Thursday / “Where are they now?” where we take an in-depth look at someone who’s story has evolved considerably since we first featured them.

Last week, we heard how one side hustler built a passionate following by making “snakeskin” wallets—without using a single animal product, just upcycled materials and a clever story.

Today, in our latest feature, we’ll hear how one side hustler created a shop selling $2 digital products—and scaled it to $185,000 in revenue by mastering SEO, volume, and a few smart upsells.

Listen to today’s episode to hear more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Raver Turns LED-Powered Gloves Into Bright Future: When a raver-turned-salesperson falls in love with an underground art form, he turns it into a successful side business.
• Bright Idea Leads Chicago Woman to Million-Dollar Hustle: A Chicago-based plastic recycling sales rep overcomes her fears and doubts to transform her love for DIY lamp shades and $10 in supplies into a multi-million dollar business.
• 3D Printing Brings Cosplay Into 21st Century: With a 3D printer and sense of imagination, a California natural gas industry worker takes superhero DIY cosplay to a whole new level.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3126

In today’s story…

… a board game maker who tries to raise $6,000 for his first project. It fails in this goal … it actually earns more than $100,000!

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3125

Creating a great product is only the first step. The next challenge is getting it into more people’s hands—especially if you don’t want to be the one running a warehouse or managing bulk orders.

Rayna from Toronto is in this position. She’s developed a high-quality set of early literacy worksheets and curriculum tools, and they’ve already gained traction with educators. But she doesn’t want to scale the business solo—so she’s exploring licensing as a path to greater reach and more sustainable income.

Let’s look at how licensing works for educational content, and what it takes to get a company to say yes.

“Over the past couple of years, I’ve created a set of branded educational worksheets and curriculum materials for early literacy. I initially designed them for a tutoring program I ran, but they’ve taken on a life of their own—teachers and homeschoolers have started requesting them, and I’ve sold a few digital downloads online. I’d love to reach a wider audience, but I don’t have the time or resources to handle mass distribution or print production. I’ve been thinking about licensing the materials to an educational publisher or learning platform, but I have no idea how to approach that. How does licensing actually work for something like this, and what would make a company want to pick up my materials?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3124

Today’s episode is part of a feature we call ‘Your First $1,000.’ As you might surmise from the title, this is all about how someone made their first $1,000.

How did they get to that point? Not their first $100,000—that’s cool, but it would probably be a long story.

But what about their first $1,000—how did they make that happen, what did it feel like, and what did they learn?

Let’s hear today’s story. I’ll be back at the end to wrap us up. 

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Military Spouse Starts Subscription Box Mission:When an HR Director’s husband is away on military deployment, she uses the alone time to march toward a subscription box.
• Think Inside the Subscription Box:Looking for more community, a North Carolina web agency owner starts a subscription box for female entrepreneurs. It’s supposed to be a referral tool for her agency, but it ends up becoming a full-time business of its own.
• Nature-Loving Neighbors Create Kids Subscription Box: When two couples can’t figure out how to get their kids outdoors and away from electronics in the winter, a personal challenge blossoms into an unbeLEAFable side hustle.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3123

It’s Weekend Workshop, and it’s new!

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3122

We hear a lot about how to start things: how to launch, how to grow, how to scale. But what about the other side—how to end things?

Today’s question comes from Ben, who has a gift for guiding people through personal and professional exits. He’s not trying to be a life coach or therapist—he’s thinking of this as a practical, structured service: helping people quit with intention, shut down a business cleanly, or end something without burning bridges.

The question is: is that something people would pay for? Or is it too niche—or too emotional—to monetize?

“My name is Daniel, and I work full-time in a corporate job and recently started a side hustle offering digital marketing services to small local businesses. It’s going well, but here’s my dilemma—I really don’t want my employer to find out, at least not yet. I’m not doing anything shady, but I’d prefer to keep things separate for now. So I’m thinking about using a different last name or even a full pseudonym for my business. Is that okay? Are there any legal or ethical issues I should be aware of, or is this actually more common than people admit?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3121

Wouldn’t it be great if you could skip the frustrating, technical parts of building an app or website—and just describe your idea, have an AI understand it, and hand you working code?

That’s the dream behind something called vibe coding, a term being used to describe a new style of software creation: not manual, syntax-heavy programming, but natural language conversations with AI that generate the code for you.

Today’s question comes from Jordan in Flagstaff, who wants to know whether this trend is real—and whether you can actually build a sustainable project, product, or side hustle this way.

“I’ve been hearing a lot lately about something called vibe coding—where you basically use AI to build apps or websites just by describing what you want, without needing to manually write lines of code. It sounds almost too good to be true, especially for people like me who have ideas but no real technical background. My question is: how real is this? Could someone actually build a legit side hustle or product using vibe coding tools, or is it more hype than reality right now?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3120

Welcome to Throwback Thursday / “Where are they now?” where we take an in-depth look at someone who’s story has evolved considerably since we first featured them.

Last week, we heard how one college student flipped used furniture from Facebook Marketplace—and paid off half their tuition bill without ever taking out a loan.

Today, in our latest feature, we’ll hear how one side hustler built a passionate following by making “snakeskin” wallets—without using a single animal product, just upcycled materials and a clever story.

Listen to today’s episode to hear more…

 

---

 

 

SEE ALSO:

• Raver Turns LED-Powered Gloves Into Bright Future: When a raver-turned-salesperson falls in love with an underground art form, he turns it into a successful side business.
• Bright Idea Leads Chicago Woman to Million-Dollar Hustle: A Chicago-based plastic recycling sales rep overcomes her fears and doubts to transform her love for DIY lamp shades and $10 in supplies into a multi-million dollar business.
• 3D Printing Brings Cosplay Into 21st Century: With a 3D printer and sense of imagination, a California natural gas industry worker takes superhero DIY cosplay to a whole new level.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3119

In today’s story…

… two baseball players who advanced a bit further than me—one of them was actually drafted by a MLB team—and then they create a subscription service for baseball bats that now serves thousands of customers, mostly kids and their families, all across the country. This side hustle has grown to earning up to $50k/month.

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

---

 

SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3118

We’ve all heard of cooking shows that promise “30-minute meals” or “five-ingredient fixes.” But what if the goal wasn’t to follow a recipe—but to ditch it entirely?

Today’s question comes from Nina in Tallahassee. She’s a confident home cook who loves to improvise in the kitchen and wants to teach others how to do the same. Instead of posting traditional recipes, she’s considering a video channel built around instinctive, no-measuring cooking. But will anyone actually follow a food creator who refuses to give them exact instructions?

Let’s explore what’s possible when your niche is teaching people to cook without rules—and how it can be more marketable than you might expect.

“I’m a home cook, and one thing I’ve realized is that I hate following recipes. I almost never measure, and I love teaching people how to improvise in the kitchen instead of obsessing over exact steps. I’ve been thinking about starting a cooking channel—YouTube, maybe TikTok—where I just teach techniques, instincts, and confidence, not strict recipes. But I’m not sure if this is too niche, or if people will even take it seriously without measurements and ingredient lists. Can this kind of no-recipe concept be turned into something profitable, or is it just a personal quirk?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

---

 

SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,