This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hello and welcome. This is Side Hustle School. I'm Chris Guillebeau here with you, bringing you the weekly recap, episode 309. Looking back on week number 44, I'm gonna call this, if at first you don't succeed, try something else. 'Cause that's what I think you should do.

Lots of stuff you try is probably not gonna work. That's okay. What is important is to keep moving forward. Now in my little world, I'm moving forward on the road. This week I've been in San Francisco and Santa Cruz, California, also Detroit.

This coming week I'll be in Pittsburgh and then the following week Minneapolis and Chicago. The tour continues and I would love to see you somewhere, if we haven't already or maybe even again. So if you wanna check that out, just go to sidehustleschool.com/tour. Now I mentioned this as week number 44 in episode 309. With one episode a day, this conveniently corresponds to the 309th day of the year.

And a lot of people have been asking me, what happens next? Like some folks have been listening to Side Hustle School all the way since January 1. You guys are rock stars. Lots of other people have discovered the show throughout the year and people are saying, okay, like here we are in November, you made a commitment to go through the year, but what happens after that? Well, great question.

In an upcoming check-in message, which I usually do like once a month, a short little three minute check-in, I'm gonna let you know what we're thinking, but not everything is decided just yet. So if you have some input, if you have a request, if you want the show to keep going, I would love to hear from you. So as always, you can write to me from sidehustleschool.com or just directly chris@sidehustleschool.com or of course on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. I wanna do two shout outs today and a listener question. Also a quick little look back at some of the things we talked about over the past few days.

First shout out is for a friend of mine named Jordan Harbinger. And Jordan, together with a couple other guys, produces a very popular podcast called The Art of Charm. This is actually an iTunes top 50 podcast. It's been going strong for, I don't know, 30 years or however long podcasts have been going. It's about leveling up your life in all forms, especially in relationships.

On The Art of Charm, they talk about things like how to create confidence, how to get people to like and trust you, productivity, time management, even stuff like biohacking. Basically anything that will help you upgrade your brain so that you can become a high performer both at home and at work. They also have some big name guests, including Russell Brand, Larry King, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, I think that's the science guy, and even Shaquille O'Neal recently. I have also been on The Art of Charm, but I noticed I wasn't in that list that they sent me. That's okay.

I am not a science guy or a very famous basketball player. If you wanna check it out, go to theartofcharm.com/podcast or search for The Art of Charm in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts and take your life to the next level. And that is not a sponsored endorsement, by the way. They are just friends of mine and I told them I'd give them a shout out. One more shout out.

This is to a listener from Belgium. Her name is Yasmin, or Yasmin, perhaps. And she says, "Hey, Chris, I'm sending you my story because you should know how much Side Hustle School impacted me. After years of messing around, I finally found my project, Custom QR Code Stickers, helping people to get lost, valued objects back." So here's how it works. I connect the client's phone number to their custom QR code sticker.

Then my client puts the sticker onto their object. This could be a laptop, a cell phone, a suitcase, and so on. If someone scans the code, they're able to text the owner of the object automatically. On top of that, I use some psychology to make my product work. All the stickers have a label saying, "Claim my reward." And that's because someone finding a valued object will be much more triggered to scan the code and text you.

Currently, I only ship to Belgium, but if it gets big over here, who knows? And Yasmin is actually a 20-year-old student. She says she listens every day during her commutes to college. So congratulations, Yasmin. Thank you for listening and I'm glad you were able to figure that out.

Let that be a lesson to somebody else out there. Next up, we got a question on the Hustle Hotline. Just a reminder, you can call the Hustle Hotline and leave your question or comment. I might play it on the show along with an answer. That Hustle Hotline is 8449 Hustle or 8449487853.

So let's see who we have on the line today. - Hey, Chris, my name is Nico from Vancouver, Canada. I've been renting out my video on filmmaking equipment on a website, on a rental website called Coupe. I've also begun building my own website for renting equipment. I'm finding that it's kind of working.

I've made about $500 on it and I've had about 16 different video people rent out from me. I'm just looking for some tips on how I can automate this or find more marketing like avenues in order to continue renting and maybe building this rental site hustle. Thank you so much, have a good one. - Hey, Nico, congratulations on getting started with that video equipment rental hustle. Definitely sounds like you're well on the way to making something profitable.

And as you probably know, this kind of equipment rental stuff can be really good for you, for the person doing it, because these things are not usually inexpensive. Like I know from my own experience and doing lots of events, it can be a good business for people. It's also very much a business that depends on referral and word of mouth and reliability. So probably the first and most important thing is just to keep doing what you're doing. Try to use one gig or one rental as a bridge to something else.

When you have a rental, go back to that customer and say, how did that work out for you? Is there anything I could do better? And by the way, do you know anybody else who might need this stuff at some point? Over time in most markets, it really does kind of become clear who is reliable and dependable, who has the best equipment and can be counted on. And that goes a long way.

Now, the only other thing I thought of was, you mentioned you made $500 so far, which makes me think you're not renting a ton of equipment yet. I guess I wonder like what other equipment do people need? And the people who are renting this equipment, what else might they need? Not just equipment, but is there some service they need? Is there some referral that you can make to other people?

I don't know exactly what that would be since I don't know who the clients are or specifically what kind of video equipment you're renting. That seems like it might be a good direction to go down. Anyway, good work and let us know how things go. [Music]

All right, let's take a quick look back on some of the highlights from this week. And by the way, if you've been listening for a while, I'm actually gonna start doing the weekly recaps a bit differently.

I'm just gonna tell you a couple of highlights or some things that stood out or anything that was particularly significant to listeners. I've noticed over time that you guys have certain favorites. Sometimes I can predict what they are, but not always, which is also kind of an interesting thing. Of course, you can always go back and listen to any or all of the episodes. They're all free.

You can download them on the Side Hustle School site or on Apple podcasts or wherever you prefer to listen, Spotify, Stitcher, et cetera. But a couple that stood out this week, episode 303, the published author who makes $19,000, her first year of teaching writing courses online. Jessica is a successful published author working with major publishing houses, but she decides to create a new source of income. And for her, this has been really great because not only is it a new source of income, it's a totally different focus. It uses a different kind of creativity.

So she's working on her novels and other books during the day and in the afternoon, she's building these courses. The courses are about productivity for writers, how to sell your novel to a major publisher, how to develop story ideas and so on. And interestingly, it's also brought her a whole new audience 'cause now she has a separate email list for people who are just interested in writing tips. Everyone's an expert in something. She has found a way to take her expertise and translate it into this new way that pays her money, which is great.

Now, Tuesday's episode happened to coincide with Halloween. October 31st, this episode featured the Los Angeles store Dapper Cadaver, the little shop of horrors that carved their way into Hollywood's heart. We had a lot of fun working on that one. I hope you enjoyed it too. And of course, it's not just a fun story, it's somebody, a couple in this case, who illustrate these values of the side hustle way.

They've actually grown it into a very big business, which not every side hustle needs to do, but in some cases, that's how it works. And now as well, because you're always learning stuff on side hustle school, the next time you need to borrow a dead body, like not a real one, but like a prop, or you need to construct a meth lab, hopefully not a real one as well, but a prop, now you know where to go. It's a little shop in East Los Angeles. Tell them we sent you. And lastly, I want to mention the episode Florida Man leads scooter tours after watching Macklemore video.

One of my favorite parts of this story actually had nothing to do with the side hustle. It has to do with how he was a remote worker, living in, I think Dallas, if I'm not mistaken. And he decides to move himself and his family to Florida without telling his company. And like I said, he was a remote worker. So technically he's not breaking any rules.

It's not like he's supposed to walk into work on Monday, and one Monday he's just not there because he's moved out of state. But still in his words, I probably should have let them know something. But he just decides basically, well, I can still do my job. There's a whole bunch of layoffs happening right now. As long as I'm fulfilling my responsibilities and I'm not actually expected to be in the office on Monday, isn't any of their business, whether I am in Texas or Florida.

Like I'm going to do what's best for me. Now, of course he does eventually create a side hustle. I think he transitions to a new job as well. But I just love that independent thinking and bold action. Not everyone would do that.

So what's coming up next? Well, guess what? We're going to have an episode every single day, Monday through Sunday, that is correct. And as some listeners have noted, the episodes are just getting better and better. But guess what?

We've got some more great ones coming up. I'm really excited this week because tomorrow actually I'm featuring an episode on a lollipop merchant of North Queensland, Australia. Actually a 13 year old who is making real money, not just pennies, from selling 50 to 75 lollipops a day, in addition to other things. Her name is Lucy. And if you're like me, much older than 13, I bet there's still something you can learn from her 'cause she's doing it right.

There's also the great story of a construction inspector who helps people pass their exams, similar in some ways to Jessica Brody in episode 303, the author who's teaching writing courses, but he's done it in a very different way. And often I like to tell two stories like that so you can see there's more than one approach to be successful in teaching people knowledge or otherwise kind of passing something on. So you'll get to hear what he did. Not only that, but there's also a hemp expert earning $2,000 a month on the side. It really is a pot of gold with seeds firmly planted.

In fact, almost a growing industry, you might say, but there are also hazards in that industry. Will it all go up in smoke? We'll find out. We are indeed cruising along every single day with that quest to create more freedom for you. I want you to be able to listen to "Saudiceful School" and apply this to your life to create more options so that you have the possibility to pursue the choices that are important to you.

That is the guiding mission of the show. And at the end of the week, I say thank you to a few of the people who make this show possible. Fortunately, it is not just me working on the show. I do record "Saudiceful School" on location wherever I am, every single day. But then it gets transported to Brooklyn, New York and Washington, DC, where our production team, led by A.C. Valdez and also featuring Odelia Rubin,

makes it all come to life with the beautiful music, the mix, all that cool stuff. Show notes and many other things are by Whitney Karinek, my assistant in Portland, Oregon. Jed Chang and Owen Haney have been helping me out with the tour. And of course, the official show cat Libby Gillibow, can't forget her. As we enter November, I have a question for you.

What do you give to a pumpkin that's trying to quit smoking? A pumpkin patch. That's right, post that one up on social media. You will be a hero. "Saudiceful School" is part of the onward project led by my good friend Gretchen Rubin.

She is also a bestselling author and host of the mega popular podcast "Happier." I appreciate her. I appreciate A.C., Odelia, Whitney, Jed, Owen, and most of the time Libby. But before I sign off, I would be remiss if I did not say I appreciate you. And I thank you, the listener. Whether you've been with us since January or you have just discovered "Saudiceful School," you're the reason I make this show every day.

It is a free listener supported show. And yes, by the way, we need to create a community. I know, I'm working on it. It's coming up soon. I mean, we have a community already, but we need an online one.

I get it, stay tuned. If you've been enjoying the show, do us a big favor. Tell your friends about it. Show them how to subscribe as well. I know it's hard to believe because you listen to podcasts, but a lot of people out there still have no idea how to subscribe to podcasts.

So tell them about "Saudiceful School." You could send them to the website, but even better, just take their phone and say like, "Here's this little podcast app. "Come over here. "You can subscribe to "Saudiceful School." All the episodes are gonna come to your phone free of charge. Or you could just start picking up strangers' phones and doing that too. But be sure to hand them back.

In every episode, I mention inspiration is good, but action is even better. It's because I want you to take action. I want to feature your story on the show, or if nothing else, I want to hear about it. This is a 10-minute-a-day investment in yourself. Episodes go online at 6.01 a.m. Eastern time.

I hope you'll join me for them next week. I'm Chris Guillebeau for "Saudiceful School."