Tag: Blog

Environmentalist Couple Sells Online Courses in Beekeeping

What It’s About

Niche online courses that help people live more organic lives.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

There are still plenty of niche industries that are relatively underdeveloped online, so if strong competition gives you pause, look for markets with a minimal online presence and make yourself an authority there. And if you’re not sure where to start, go to Amazon and look for niches and books that have lots of comments and a following that lack decent online courses in those topics online.

Fun Fact

Organic Life Guru allowed Chris and Samantha to spend an entire winter in Costa Rica so that they could collaborate with an instructor in the rainforest and create a really big course for their site.

Notes from Chris

Episode 328

Today’s story comes from Chris Badgett in Belfast, Maine. By day, Chris is the CEO at LifterLMS, a WordPress plugin for online courses. (This was originally a side hustle before it became his full-time job.) His new side hustle is Organic Life Guru, a website offering online courses in organic gardening and permaculture from the world’s top organic growing experts. He wanted to do something that that aligned with his values and liked the idea of starting a membership site.

Chris has a degree in sustainable development and describes himself as an environmentalist. He runs this hustle with his wife, Samantha, an organic farmer. Chris works on the website and the marketing, and Samantha is responsible for course content, instructor relationships, and customer support.

OLG offers courses in topics ranging from beekeeping, permaculture design, organic gardening, food forest design for cities and suburbs, organic soil building for backyard gardening, how to grow a medicinal food forest, and more. The nine courses range in cost from $20 to $225 and offer anywhere from two hours of content to about 20 hours of content.

The profit is roughly $1,000 to $3,000 per month, and the sales volume fluctuates based on whether or not they’re doing a promotion or new course launch. A launch brings higher income, but also more work. They’re able to structure their side hustle life around what’s happening with the rest of their life.

For them, it’s the best of both worlds, and it also aligns with those values of teaching people about the earth.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Organic Life Guru: Take a page out of the books from some of the world’s leading organic growth experts when you check out Chris and Samantha’s online courses
  • Screenflow, iMovie, & Final Cut Pro: Three of the programs that Chris and Samantha used to edit the videos for their courses
  • Vimeo Pro: The video platform that Chris and Samantha used to keep their videos exclusive to course purchasers
  • KingSumo Giveaways: The WordPress plugin that they used that allowed people to enter for a chance to win a course for free

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for my past 5 websites. It's cheap, flexible, and you can get support 24 hours a day.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

Quote of the Day
"We took on the publisher mindset where we partnered with experts to publish courses with their material and expertise. When my wife asked me what to say to the #1 author in the world on permaculture, I made a joking comment to say, ‘Just ask him where we should send the checks.’ She sent that to the expert, and he said, ‘Yes.’"
—Chris Badgett #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Create a Stunning Website With Wordpress

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Wordpress.com! Whether you’re looking to create a personal blog, business site, or both—you’ll make a big impact, when you build your website on WordPress.com. 💻

Get 15% off when you build your website with Wordpress.com—use promo code PODCAST when you check out.
Get Started Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Lifelong Girl Scout Earns Her Side Hustle Badge (And $3,500/Month)

What It’s About

Girl Scout troop leader turns the business of badges and cookies into passive income.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Jodi says the secret sauce to running such a successful site in this niche boils down to a few different things: 1) understanding the scout leader’s pain points so that you can sell your products in an empathetic way that doesn’t come off sales-y, 2) automating as much of your process as you can, and 3) building an engaging mailing list.

Fun Fact

Jodi’s mom was her troop leader for a long time, and the family converted her entire basement into a troop headquarters, including decorating the house like the woods and using tree stumps for chairs.

Notes from Chris

Episode 317

For Jodi Carlson, the Girl Scouts had been a huge part of her life for over 25 years. For 12 of those years she’d been a scout, and then 13 as a leader. But, when her son was born in March 2015, Jodi decided it was time to step down from her position and focus the time her young family.

Although she loved the challenge of her new home life, she missed the volunteering and organizing she’d devoted so many years to. She knew she couldn’t commit herself to a schedule with lots of fixed appointments like she’d have to do as a troop leader, but she still wanted a meaningful way to contribute to their community and inspire these young visionaries.

The year before her son was born, Jodi had created a website to share what her local troop, #80671, in a small city in Ohio located along the banks of Lake Erie, had been doing, and to share thoughts and advice with other leaders around the country.

She’d also written a small eBook to sell at $5.00 and was surprised that after six months, people from the other side of the country were still buying and reading it. She felt that this site—if she could expand her products and the information—would be the perfect way to help the community and make a little money to put toward her student loans.

So decided to upgrade, and she called the project Leader Connecting Leaders.

Most of the information on her website is given away for free. There are long-form articles, tutorials and how-to guides giving her readers most of the information they need to run a successful and entertaining Girl Scout group. But Jodi puts a small price of between $3 to $5 on some of the specific resources—like activity booklets, printouts, and games—to solve specific leader problems in just a few clicks and a quick download from her site.

From these products, Jodi is able to generate $3,000 to $3,500 per month. By the halfway point of 2017, Jodi has already made $10,000 and is on-track to double last year’s profits. You could definitely say that Jodi’s earned her Side Hustle badge!

girl-scout
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"I have tried many different things that have completely failed, but if I had not tried them, I would never have known. Isn’t it better to know for sure than wonder?"
—Jodi Carlson #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Fulbright Scholar Earns $2k/Month Selling CBD Oil

What It’s About

A student builds a hempire educating others about the benefits and uses of hemp and CBD oil.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Annie says that while not everyone is as obsessed with hemp as she is, she still thinks that her path and lessons can benefit everyone:

“Every job can be of benefit to you even if it’s not directly applicable to your passion. Giving out free beer helped me become better at small talk and feel comfortable approaching strangers.”

Fun Fact

Without a doubt, any time Annie does in-person educational outreach she gets a comment about how she could smoke her hemp shirt or get high off the CBD supplements—both of which are horribly misguided. Not one to be deterred, she looks at it as another opportunity for education!

Notes from Chris

Episode 315

While it’s only been the last couple years that Annie Rouse has launched her hemp side hustle, it’s been a long time coming. When she was growing up in Kentucky, her dad was the videographer who filmed a publicity stunt that actor Woody Harrelson orchestrated back in 1996.

Harrelson planted 4 hemp seeds in an attempt to draw attention to the fact that industrial hemp and marijuana were still controlled under the same law. He was arrested, and ultimately acquitted during a one-day jury trial.

This event left a lasting impression on Annie. She wrote about the event in college and also started researching Harry Anslinger—the 1st Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962—who in his war against marijuana didn’t differentiate between the psychoactive drug and the non-psychoactive industrial hemp plant.

When she learned about this bit of history, Annie immediately wanted to educate the general public about how industrial hemp has been incorrectly grouped with marijuana. She’s been educating on the individual level ever since, but in the back of her mind, she’s always had the idea that she needed to share this story with a larger audience.

During her studies, she started a simple WordPress site called Think Hempy Thoughts, where she chronicled what she was learning. It very quickly became an outlet for her philosophy of living consciously and sustainably.

Not long after, Annie was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Since CBD is great at reducing inflammation she pretty quickly saw positive results in her symptoms. When she ran out of that brand, she tried a different one and wasn’t reaping the same benefits. She ended up trying over a dozen different brands of CBD and realizing how inconsistent the results were since there were no standards in the industry.

With this personal insight, Annie made some tweaks to the verification system, narrowing her focus to just CBD and very shortly after got her first certification client. Her verification system gives brands a third-party seal of approval that communicates to consumers that the CBD is high quality and uncontaminated. With verified products to sell, Annie set up and launched her online marketplace in the beginning of 2017, using Shopify. After only a couple months she was selling over a thousand dollars in products a month. By mid-year, she was bringing in $2k – $3k per month in revenue.

With steady income coming in from her marketplace hustle on Think Hempy Thoughts, Annie can fulfill her dream of educating people about hemp via her new podcast and nonprofit and can continue to expand her hempire and influence on the industry.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Think Hempy Thoughts: Educate yourself about all of the many uses for hemp on Annie’s website!
  • WordPress: Annie used WordPress to create Think Hempy Thoughts, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes
  • Yoast to Optimize SEO: Annie uses the Yoast plugin for SEO (stands for Search Engine Optimization) purposes and it’s all about making your website and the posts on your website more friendly for Google so that you can get a higher Google ranking.
  • Shopify: Annie used Shopify to set up her store for Think Hempy Thoughts, and they’re offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Quote of the Day
"As Steve Jobs once said, ‘You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.’ While none of my past occupations and projects seemed to connect at the time, I can look back and see how all the different jobs have helped get me where I am now."
—Annie Rouse #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Cook with Blue Apron!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Blue Apron. 👩‍🍳

Check out this week’s menu and get your first three meals FREE, with free shipping. Get ready to say mmmmmm.
Get Yours Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

ER Nurse Masters CrossFit and Becomes Nutrition Coach

What It’s About

A change up turns an unknown recipe blog into a successful fitness and nutrition coaching side hustle.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Show your passion so others know they can trust you, and document your journey on social media. This helps significantly when you’re looking for clients as your clients will think of you when they require help with a specific problem.

Fun Fact

Heather went part-time as a nurse in August and aims to turn her side hustle into a full-time job by the end of next year. Her goal with The Positive Thread involves transforming the minds, bodies, and lives of 100 women by December 31st, 2018.

Notes from Chris

Episode 308

For Heather McConochie, becoming a nutrition coach was an easy decision. As an Emergency Room nurse, Heather had plenty of experience in the healthcare industry, along with an extensive knowledge of human physiology, and she realized that while taking care of patients was meaningful, she wanted to do something that would allow her to help people before they landed in the hospital.

Heather knew that she could make an even bigger impact by coaching others on how they could have a healthier lifestyle and approach. Not only that, but her own personal fitness journey had taught her that many illnesses could be prevented with proper nutrition and sufficient exercise.

When she began her CrossFit journey in 2015, she ventured into healthier eating education to make sure that she could perform at her best during gym sessions. Her better eating habits quickly yielded results as she not only set personal records in her weightlifting, but also mastered skills like handstand pushups, ring dips, and pull-ups.

Eager to document and help others replicate her success, she launched her website with a vision of having a successful food and wellness blog. However, her site quickly fell into neglect as she found that she had no audience. It was simply too demoralizing and difficult to write quality posts consistently, knowing that her words weren’t reaching the people she’d hoped for.

Things remained that way for awhile. As she trained, Heather completed a nutrition certification program to ensure that she was properly fuelling her workouts. Over time, she gained a reputation for fitness, and her colleagues started approaching her for advice on nutrition.

During one such interaction, her coworker remarked that she should start a business around nutrition coaching. Heather wasn’t sure that it would work until she found out that a friend from her gym was paying $75 an hour for nutrition coaching. If there was one person willing to pay that much, Heather figured, it would probably be possible to find more people who would be willing to pay such rates for good coaching. She could have an entire business doing nutrition coaching!

She now has 19 clients and ended up making $6,250 within the first 4 months of starting her nutrition and fitness coaching side hustle, The Positive Thread. Now that many of those clients have committed to recurring plans or multiple sessions, she now has a more predictable recurring side hustle monthly income of $1,500.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The Positive Thread: Reach your health and fitness goals—learn more about how to do so on Heather’s website!
  • SquareSpace: The website building platform that Heather used to create The Positive Thread
  • Thinkific: The course building platform that Heather used to create courses for her coaching clients, which she eventually aims to release as an individual product

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Quote of the Day
"You don’t need a degree, but if you don’t know enough to help people get sustainable results, you won’t get clients."
—Heather McConochie #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get a FREE Audiobook from Audible!

Audible is offering SHS listeners a free copy of the Born For This audiobook with a 30-day trial membership. 📚

Just go to aonc.co/bftaudible and browse the unmatched selection of audio programs and start listening.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Musician Turns Drum Lessons Into Six-Figure Podcast

What It’s About

Drummer marches to the beat of his own drum creating a highly successful niche podcast.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Anyone can begin by talking about something they are knowledgeable about, whether through blogs, videos, or podcasting. Focus on distribution and get the word out, and build Only then, can you think about customers and advertisers.

Fun Fact

When he was younger and just getting started on his path to rock, Nick religiously watched an instructional VHS called “Under the Table and Drumming” from one of his heros—Carter Beauford the drummer for Dave Matthews Band. He watched it so much in fact that he broke the tape. Of course, he bought another one to replace the defective tape, and lo and behold, he wore out that one too!

Notes from Chris

Episode 296

Philadelphia native Nick Ruffini developed a love for the drums when he was a teenager. When he was 15, his parents hosted a party and invited his brother’s garage band over to play for them. As fate would have it, the drummer of the band left his drums at Nick’s place after the party and wouldn’t come back to collect them for over a month. During this time, Nick played with the drum set every day.

By the end of the month, he realized that he needed a drum set of his own because he had fallen in love with the instrument.

This love of drumming continued through his teens, and he took his act on the road with a band he helped form when he was 18. As Nick said, one of the best ways to make money as a musician in a band was to tour and get your name out there, and that’s exactly what they did. And this worked out really well for the most part—even as he was getting his degree—but all of that changed when he met a girl in New Jersey.

This wasn’t just any girl, she was the girl, and it got Nick to thinking that there had to be a better way to make money from his music without having to sacrifice his time and relationships to life on the road.

It was around this time that Nick decided to take up lessons to learn more about different drumming techniques and styles, and one day, Nick asked his teacher if he could record his lessons for the day. Nick was no stranger to side hustles, so naturally, he thought that there would be others who would want to listen to the conversations he was having with these knowledgeable drummers.

One popular podcast, one blog, and four years later, he’s been able to take Drummer’s Resource on full-time and is bringing in six figures annually! Nick shows us that there’s no fixed playbook on how you can expand your side hustle. Like him, you can march to the beat of your own drum.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Drummer’s Resource: Check out some of the interviews Nick has featured on his website!
  • GarageBand: Nick used this digital music creation studio to produce the episodes for his podcast

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"To stay consistent is pretty hard when you’re not making any money. Persevere anyway."
—Nick Ruffini #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Create a Stunning Website With Wordpress

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Wordpress.com! Whether you’re looking to create a personal blog, business site, or both—you’ll make a big impact, when you build your website on WordPress.com. 💻

Get 15% off when you build your website with Wordpress.com—use promo code PODCAST when you check out.
Get Started Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Travel Blogger Gets Paid via Pinterest and Guidebooks

What It’s About

A French travel blogger zigzags around Europe documenting her travels and selling guidebooks for passive income.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Claire tried to give a lot of information about fewer locations, as opposed to most travel guides that try to give information about hundreds of locations. And she gave very clear directions about how to find the best shot of a particular waterfall, landmark, or landscape.

Her overall objective was to simplify the information being offered on a particular destination so people didn’t have to sift through a lot of extra information to get to the good stuff. She wanted to help with the trip planning overwhelm and lay out the really good options instead of every single option, and this is really good advice for anyone looking to do something similar. Everyone writes general guidebooks—stand out by simplifying your selection and getting specific with your info.

Fun Fact

One of Claire’s customers not only loved her guidebooks but said that it saved her marriage. The customer is also a travel planning addict and generally spends hours trying to find the information for their next trip, which annoys her husband. Thanks to Claire’s guidebook, the customer found all the information she needed, saved a ton of time and didn’t annoy her husband.

Notes from Chris

Episode 293

There are a lot of travel bloggers out there, but the vast majority of them aren’t making any money—at least, not anything to write home about. Today’s story is a bit different though—it’s about a travel enthusiast in France who spends her time road tripping around Europe. The best part? She documents her travels and turns them into guides that earn her an additional $10,000 a year. What a journey!

Today’s side hustle comes from Claire Robinson who is based in France, but travels a lot… so who knows where she is right now. Back in 2013, Claire was a Quality Manager for a medical device company and was lucky enough to travel around the world for her job. Since she was visiting and at times, living, abroad she started blogging about her excursions.

She set up a simple WordPress website and started sharing specific tips and itineraries from the places she would visit. She named her website ZigZag on Earth: because she zigzags around when she has time before zigzagging back home.

By early 2016, Claire decided to put some sort of strategy in place for her guidebooks. She picked Pinterest as her social media and for her efforts made $4500 in 2016. She continued with her free Pinterest marketing and so far in 2017, her revenue has exceeded $10k. She now has over 4,000 followers on Pinterest and over 46k unique monthly visitors to her website.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • ZigZag on Earth: Zigzag your way across Europe with some help from Claire. Check out her website!
  • Selz: The ecommerce platform that Claire used to take care of payments and the delivery of the guide book to the buyer
  • WordPress: Claire used WordPress to create ZigZag on Earth, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes!
  • Canva: The free design platform that Claire used to create images for social media

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for my past 5 websites. It's cheap, flexible, and you can get support 24 hours a day.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Don’t go into travel blogging just because you love travel. Know that it will completely change your travel experience. My travel days are really long so that I can cover a lot of ground. I do not stop. I take strange pictures of information boards and entrances signs. It’s definitely changed how I travel."
—Claire Robinson #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Designer Turns Bad Parking Into $25,000 Per Year

What It’s About

An LA man creates a series of magnets to shame bad drivers into better parking behavior.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

What bothers you or annoys you? Peter took something that annoys a lot of us and created a fun solution. If something bothers you, you’re likely not alone—find the solution!

Fun Fact

Did you know that if you have a driveway you don’t use, you could start your own side hustle renting it out as a parking space online? Learn more, here!

Notes from Chris

Episode 283

If there’s one thing all drivers can agree on it’s this: bad parking is a cardinal sin. Entering an almost full parking lot to find someone has double-parked across the last available space is enough to make sane people go crazy, and maybe even leave a nasty note. But for designer Peter Vandendriesse, none of this was doing enough to solve the problem.

Peter wanted a way to change how people communicate about bad parking and create a “delightfully distasteful” way to start the conversation.

The idea was simple: create a series of magnets that could be stuck to a bad parker’s car, and then passed on from that driver to the next bad parking job they see. Thus moving the conversation forward, doing no damage to cars and still giving drivers the opportunity to vent their frustrations. As Peter says, 100% of people enjoy the satisfaction of slapping a magnet on someone’s car who has improperly parked.

Some of my favorites include, “Colouring books must have been hard for you,” “Airlines would charge you double for this,” and “Titanic. The Hindenburg. This parking job.”

Do Your Park (a clever play on “do your part”) is currently averaging about $25,000 a year in income, mostly through seasonal online sales as the product makes for a perfect stocking stuffer. Peter has recently bought some of the equity from his partners and is looking at ways to increase the year-round income from the product. This will include an increased marketing push, and getting the product featured in more retail stores in his new home of Los Angeles.

But if it’s current rate of growth is anything to go by, this side hustle has a parking spot reserved around the world. Just don’t park outside the lines!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Do Your Park: Find a healthy way to express your frustrations with bad park jobs while still getting the point across. Check out Peter’s magnet creations on his website or visit his product page on Amazon!
  • Shopify: Peter used Shopify to set up his store for Do Your Park, and they’re offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!
  • Trello: The free, communication platform that Peter and his co-founders used to brainstorm phrases for the magnets

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Whether your side hustle is limping along, taking off, or on auto-pilot, you should have a plan ahead of time of what you’re going to do in each scenario. Be receptive to signals that are telling you that your side hustle DESERVES more attention."
—Peter Vandendriesse #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Cook with Blue Apron!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Blue Apron. 👩‍🍳

Check out this week’s menu and get your first three meals FREE, with free shipping. Get ready to say mmmmmm.
Get Yours Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Marketing Pro Earns Money Teaching People How to Shave

What It’s About

A man in Canada discovers the Zen-like feeling that comes with a regular wet shave routine and encourages more men to get rid of their disposable razors.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Know your products and services inside out and then just go for it! You can run profitability scenarios and come up with a million reasons why not to do it and how it won’t work. Even if it fails completely, what’s at stake? What does complete failure really look like? As a side hustle, it’s probably just time and some money. But the lessons learned and experiences you gained will make your next venture even better.

Fun Fact

Shahan’s first class went really well, however, there was a scheduling mix-up for his second class. When he and his wife arrived to set up they were greeted by a few hundred toddlers dancing to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.” While amusing, this clearly wasn’t going to work for a shaving class, so they canceled that class. But ultimately that scheduling snafu lead to Shahan successfully approaching his day job about using their showroom for his classes, which is where he still runs many of his classes today.

Notes from Chris

Episode 277

By day, Shahan Fancy is a Marketing and Sales Professional for a kitchen cabinet manufacturer in Saskatchewan, Canada. By night, Shahan has managed to turn an everyday irritation into a side hustle. Like many people, Shahan struggled with shaving. He was never really taught how to shave properly—he was simply given a cartridge razor, a can of shave cream and the lovingly fatherly advice of “try not to cut your throat.”

After years of frustration of the cost of overpriced shave cartridges and subpar results, he gave up and quit shaving altogether. Thankfully, designer stubble was sort of in style at the time.

But in 2012, Shahan began longing for that clean-shaven feeling again so he turned to Google and did a deep dive into all things shaving. About 9 pages of search results in, he discovered an article on traditional wet shaving. With his interest piqued, Shahan eagerly read through the article which made the claim of an irritation free shave and talked about how old school tools and processes made shaving “Zen-like.” Not to mention how inexpensive it was.

He purchased his first safety razor, and mustered up the courage to do his first shave which resulted in—you guessed it—a perfect irritation-free shave. Suddenly the sun was shining and it was a whole new world of smooth cheeks.

He even converted a few friends here and there, directing them to a few of his favorite online retailers. Everything was going smoothly until a few friends purchased a safety razor online and had terrible results due to poor technique. When Shahan heard the bad news he knew that if he could have just spent some time with them, to demonstrate proper technique, they would have had a great shave.

It was then that Shahan realized there were a couple opportunities on the table. First of all, there wasn’t much available by way of traditional shaving supplies in the Canadian province he lived in. Second, safety razors require a bit of practice and learning the proper technique, but he couldn’t find anyone willing to teach those interested.

So in March 2017, Shahan and his wife Donna-Lee drafted plans to solve both of these problems with the in-person free classes where they would sell products and shaving kits. Before they knew it, Shave Valet was born!

Shahan has continued to offer free classes in his area and has slowly grown his social media following and customer base. Shave Valet is only a few months old and is already bringing in about $550 a month, and is still growing. As Shahan put it, “Although margins in the shave game are ‘razor-thin’ by ‘staying sharp’ Shave Valet continues to turn a profit.”

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Shave Valet: Learn more about wet shaving and join Shahan at one of his classes!
  • WordPress, Square, & Gmail: The trifecta that Shahan used to keep his startup costs low

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

Quote of the Day
"You can run profitability scenarios and come up with a million reasons why not to do it and how it won’t work. Even if it fails completely, what’s at stake?"
—Shahan Fancy #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get a FREE Audiobook from Audible!

Audible is offering SHS listeners a free copy of the Born For This audiobook with a 30-day trial membership. 📚

Just go to aonc.co/bftaudible and browse the unmatched selection of audio programs and start listening.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Rogue Financial Analyst Earns $34,000 from Golf Membership Site

What It’s About

A former financial analyst hits a hole in one with his golf membership side hustle.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Golf is a great niche because it’s a hobby that people have to spend money on. In fact, there’s no way to participate in it without paying money. So just like personal finance is a great blog topic when it comes to monetization, so too is golf for this kind of side business.

Fun Fact

Sean also has a quest, which is closely connected to Breaking Eighty. It’s not just to break eighty—it’s to play the top 100 courses in America and the top 100 in the World. And he’s playing most of them for free!

He’s now played 41 of the top 100 in America and 35 of the Top 100 in the World. He’s currently looking for a way into Pine Valley—the #1 golf course in the world—so that he can mark off two more!

Notes from Chris

Episode 263

Sean Ogle got his start as a financial analyst, but that didn’t last very long. He had a bucket list, a list of goals, objectives, and missions of all the things he wanted to do in life. So he started a blog, Location Rebel, as a means of public accountability.

In another story which I told in some ways long ago in the Art Of Non-Conformity book, six months after starting the blog, Sean ended up quitting his job, moving to Thailand, and then working on Location Rebel and freelancing to pay the bills.

But that’s not what we’ll talk about today; today we’ll talk about his side hustle. Yes, even self-employed people need side hustles, and I really like Sean’s…

His side hustle is called Breaking Eighty, a golf membership club. Sean monetizes it through a community he created within the site called The Eighty Club. It’s an online forum for private golf club members across the world.

Right now they’ve just passed the 150 member mark in about 8 months of being in business. It continues to bring in 1-2 new members a week on average, at a fee of $500 annually. Right now Sean is looking at $35,000 in annual recurring revenue, that’s growing quite a bit since they raised their price from $250 to $500 a couple of months ago.

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Breaking Eighty: Take your game to the next level on Sean’s golf membership website. Fore!
  • Location Rebel: The blog that Sean started as a means of public accountability
  • WordPress: Sean used WordPress to create Breaking Eighty, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes!
  • Discourse: The modern forum software that Sean used to build he forum for The Eighty Club
  • ConvertKit: The email carrier that Sean used for his mailing list, and right now, you can get your first month free!

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

Quote of the Day
"I think creating a small niche community is one of the best ways to grow an online business right now.

 Think about what the perfect community would look like for YOUR passions or hobbies. Niche down as far as possible, and then create that."
—Sean Ogle #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Every Dog Has Its Side Hustling Day

What It’s About

Little collars have a big impact on the homeless and hungry dogs in Ecuador.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

When it comes to marketing, The Little Collar has focused on leveraging free opportunities, such as social media. They have experimented with promoted posts on Facebook and Instagram but found that word of mouth has been the best form of promotion and encourage other hustlers to take note. Rick attributes the company’s organic growth to those word of mouth promotions.

Fun Fact

The trio behind The Little Collar are driven by the desire to give back, to help, to make a difference, and they recently donated all their profits from Aug. 30-31 to Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts. A social media post that got over 100,000 views on Imgur brought in enough sales that the company raised more than $1,000 toward the cause.

Notes from Chris

Episode 258

Today’s story features two computer scientists who happen to be sisters and one of their boyfriends who join together to create a side hustle for the greater dog world. Every dog has its day, and today you’ll hear about a social good story (that also makes money, of course).

Combine a love of dogs with a motivation to make a difference plus passion to succeed and what do you get? The Little Collar—a business built from the love of man’s best friend.

The Little Collar wristbands that looks like small pet collars yet are worn by humans looking to show solidarity with the homeless and hungry dogs in developing countries. For with every little collar sold, the company provides a day of food to a dog in need.

The Little Collar is a new side hustle by our listeners—two sisters Julia Spehlmann and Erika Spehlmann, both who are computer science students earning second bachelor degrees, and Rick Chrisos, a full-time software salesman and Julia’s boyfriend.

The idea came to Julia during her trip to Ecuador to visit family. Over the years, she witnessed the hardships, overpopulation, and cruelty faced by stray dogs, but was always left with the question “how do I help?” Unlike in the US, there is a lack of animal shelters in Ecuador. Homeless, hungry dogs roam the streets.

Years later, when she discovered a newly formed shelter, Julia realized what she could do and The Little Collar was formed.

She borrowed her Dad’s old Singer sewing machine and power-watched YouTube tutorials on the basics of sewing to create her first little collar.

Profits fluctuate, depending on the cost of materials and labor, but they’re currently about $500 a month. And since April, the business has generated enough money to cover more than a year’s worth of food for one dog—or 365 days of food for 365 dogs.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The Little Collar: Find your little collar on the trio’s website and help a hungry dog in need!
  • LegalZoom: The company Julia, Erika, and Rick used to get their LLC and all of their legal paperwork set up

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for my past 5 websites. It's cheap, flexible, and you can get support 24 hours a day.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

Quote of the Day
"The biggest thing people should do when starting up is to tell anybody and everybody that they can. Any chance we get to tell our story, to friends, family members, random strangers—we do."
—Julia Spehlmann #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Cook with Blue Apron!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Blue Apron. 👩‍🍳

Check out this week’s menu and get your first three meals FREE, with free shipping. Get ready to say mmmmmm.
Get Yours Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau