Last fall, Chris Deardorff had a passion for startups and entrepreneurship, but wasn't sure which direction to go. He had -- and still has -- a good job doing product marketing. But as he studied the local startup scene, he noticed a common problem. Many startups struggled to gain traction for the products and services; a problem an experienced product marketer could solve. In this episode, you'll hear how Chris landed his first clients, the suite of services he decided to offer, and how he's de...
Jul 14, 2016•31 min
As you know, I'm excited about alternative investments like peer-to-peer lending. And if your aim is to replace your income, I think it makes sense to invest for cash flow. This week's Side Hustle Show guest argues when you want something in other areas of your life, you go out and buy it: a pair of shoes, a computer, a new car. You don't make it from scratch! So why are we so insistent on building income from scratch? He says there's a faster way, and that's to "buy" assets that are already gen...
Jul 07, 2016•42 min
It's time to dive into the ol' listener mailbag and answer a few questions in this special Friday edition of The Side Hustle Show. The last Q&A show I did was back in November and I've had quite a few interesting questions come in since then. Today we're chatting about SEO tools and strategies, affiliate marketing, self-publishing, Udemy, real estate, taxes, consulting, and more. Full Show Notes: SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Self-Publishing, Udemy, and More: 20 Questions with Nick
Jul 01, 2016•30 min
Scott Tarcy reached out to me with a listener success story of taking some of his on-the-job skills and turning them into a business on the side. Scott's a mechanical engineer by trade, and his job involved lots of product design work, including computer aided drafting and 3D modeling. Recognizing that other individuals and companies might have a need for those skills, he took to the interwebs. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Listener Success Story: From Zero Customers to Full-Time Busin...
Jun 30, 2016•32 min
More than 150,000 women have completed Tiffany “The Budgetnetista” Aliche’s Live Richer Challenge. The roughly 30-day challenge participants step-by-step instructions on how to get their financial lives in order, get out of debt, and start saving money. Collectively, Tiffany’s tribe has saved $17 million and paid off $1.5 in debt! I first heard Tiffany tell the story of how she started the challenge and how that’s turned into a thriving business at FinCon last year, and am excited to share it wi...
Jun 23, 2016•33 min
Darrel is a full-time Operations Manager for a startup in Atlanta, but has built a sizable side hustle on eBay. In the last 12 months, he's sold over 6-figures worth of merchandise. eBay still gets massive traffic; it's currently the 7th most popular site in the US and 26th most popular in the world. That's a lot of eyeballs, and more importantly, that's a lot of buyers! In this conversation, Darrel breaks down his inventory acquisition strategies, his step-by-step auction strategy, and how he b...
Jun 16, 2016•37 min
At the end of nearly every episode of The Side Hustle Show, I ask my guests for their #1 tip for Side Hustle Nation. There’s always a great variety of responses, and I wanted to take some time today to go through some of my favorites from the past 50-ish interviews. My #1 Tip? Find your WHY. Why side hustle? What are you trying to build? What will that afford you? Full Show Notes: What I’ve Learned and Applied from 49 Awesome Entrepreneurs – Part 3
Jun 09, 2016•24 min
Matt Inglot was following the hustler's path. He built some skills on his spare time, and began selling those skills as a freelancer. The first project he sold was to build a website for $300. Soon, he had a full-time freelance business, and decided to grow into an agency. But before long, Matt found himself working 80 hour weeks and stressed out during down months about covering rent and payroll. While outwardly successful, Matt knew the business was broken. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Re...
Jun 02, 2016•36 min
If you want to learn English, you may have come across one of Gabby Wallace's hundreds of YouTube videos on the subject. Her channel, which started only because the video she recorded for her classroom students was too big to email, has grown to more than 170,000 subscribers and nearly 9 million views. Gabby is a long-time teacher and found a way to turn her subject matter expertise into a business. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: YouTube Marketing: How to Use Free Videos to Build a Full...
May 26, 2016•35 min
Jesse Gernigin is a professional stage hypnotist and online freelancer. He used to do up to 200 shows a year and even sold his own products, but realized there was always going to be a ceiling to his earning power. Turning to the world of online work, Jesse applied his performance and sales skills to land freelance work in his spare time. Today he specializes in copywriting for email sequences, sales letters, and crowdfunding campaigns. He shares some of his favorite tactics for figuring out wha...
May 19, 2016•46 min
"To build income you can hustle, but to build wealth you need to build something that doesn’t require your hands." That's what this week's guest told me, and then walked me down an interesting path in building that elusive "hands-free" business. His angle? Product licensing. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: How to Turn Your Ideas Into Recurring Revenue, with Stephen Key
May 12, 2016•34 min
Carey Green had spent the last 20 years as a pastor, before making the leap into entrepreneurship. As he studied to become a licensed mortgage broker, an idea took hold to put his study notes online. Today Carey helps other aspiring mortgage brokers pass their certification exam, a test he says was the hardest he ever took. That business, which actually derives most of its traffic from YouTube, generates $1000 a week! But Carey didn't stop there. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Case Stud...
May 05, 2016•37 min
Want to get paid to create content? Jason Zook is the undisputed king when it comes to sponsored content. You may know Jason as the IWearYourShirt guy, where he earned over $1,000,000 wearing t-shirts for various companies. He's even sold his last name (twice -- each for $40k+), formerly going as Jason Surfrapp and Jason Headsetsdotcom. In this episode, he shares his tips for getting sponsors for your work, even if you're just starting out. I think you'll like it! Full Show Notes and PDF Highlig...
Apr 28, 2016•39 min
In my recent annual member survey, one of the biggest challenges named was coming up with the right side hustle idea. Over the years, I've been on both ends of the idea spectrum: feeling hopeless in search of a business idea, and (more recently) feeling like there are more ideas than I could ever hope to tackle. Still, if you're in the brainstorming stage, I think this week's podcast session with Don "The Idea Guy" Holliday will help. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Side Hustle Idea Brai...
Apr 21, 2016•51 min
This is the second in what will (at least) be a 2-part series on side hustlers earning income from their land investment endeavors. In this special Friday edition of the show, I'm joined by Chris Pritchard. Chris is a software developer by day, but has built his land investing business up to $1500/mo in recurring revenue. In addition, Chris does the occasional cash flip and also has more than $70,000 worth of land payments under contract. Not bad for a year of dedicated focus and effort! Full Sh...
Apr 15, 2016•23 min
In episode 108 of The Side Hustle Show last year, we met Mark Podolsky, a real estate investor specializing in raw land. He called it "The Best Passive Income Model," because there are no products to build, no tenants or toilets, and you can start without a huge upfront investment. This year, I wanted to feature a couple of listeners who took action based on that episode. The first is my friend Josh Brooks, an Army Battalion Commander and founder of The Enduring Charity Foundation. Full Show Not...
Apr 14, 2016•27 min
We first heard from Robert Farrington back in 2013, on episode 10 of The Side Hustle Show. At that time, he was earning $3-4k a month from a portfolio of different sites, and looking to expand his online empire. This week, we catch up on what’s changed since then. Robert’s doubled down on his main site, TheCollegeInvestor.com, narrowed his focus, and roughly tripled his earnings. Oh, and he’s still working full-time too. We chat content, traffic, and monetization strategies, as well as how he ma...
Mar 31, 2016•36 min
Kenny Azama has worked with massive global brands like Nike, Samsung, Apple, Chevrolet, and Coca Cola, but he's not an ad agency or a top secret marketing mogul. He's a professional brand ambassador, "someone who is temporarily hired to represent a brand in a positive light, and provide consumers with a memorable face-to-face experience." I think this in an interesting side hustle, and one we haven't covered on the site before, because as Kenny explains, there are always gigs nearby, they're fun...
Mar 24, 2016•22 min
Gina Horkey has come highly recommended by a number of listeners, and I’ve seen her work what seems like “all over the Internet” for the past couple years so I’m excited to finally connect and bring her on the show. She’s a freelance writer extraordinaire, but also a virtual assistant, and someone who now helps others follow in her footsteps. Gina successfully built her freelance writing and virtual assistant business to be earning several thousand dollars a month; enough to quit her day job and...
Mar 17, 2016•34 min
Do you know Jon Dykstra from FatStacksBlog.com? I've been following his work since last summer and have been really impressed. Jon is a former attorney turned full-time entrepreneur, and he’s the master of building high quality niche blogs and monetizing them to $10k-20k per month in record time. (Sixty days to $10k in one case.) Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: How to Build a 6-Figure Blog Fast On the call, we use the example of a snow sports site, which in years past may have been consi...
Mar 10, 2016•40 min
Voiceover acting may be -- at least in my mind -- one of the most universal side hustles. I mean, almost all of us can speak, right? My guest this week, Carrie Olsen, assures me there's a little more to it than that, but also says it's a business with low startup costs and low barriers to entry. Carrie went from her first audition to quitting her job in a span of just 4 months. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Getting Started in Voiceover Acting
Mar 03, 2016•31 min
Parenthood has got me thinking, every BIG victory is built on the back of a ton of mini victories. You don't wake up one morning and win the Super Bowl. You win it one quarter at a time, one possession at a time, one down at a time, one yard at a time. We all want the BIG win; quit our jobs, passive income, early retirement, location-independence, whatever it is. But what's the next mini win to help get us there? Full Show Notes: The Mini-Victory Theory
Feb 26, 2016•20 min
A couple months ago, Matt Bochnak sent me a note about his motorcycle repair side hustle. As someone who is, shall we say, less-than-savvy when it comes to mechanics, I was impressed. But Matt shared that the passive income from this service business now actually exceeds his revenue from "turning wrenches." Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: From Active to Passive Income with a Service Business Don't Miss our Follow-ups with Matt: Part 2: Episode 354 up to $5k a month Part 3: Episode 484 up...
Feb 25, 2016•30 min
Teaching online is a fantastic way to earn money from your experience, skills, and expertise Phil's built up a HUGE library of more than 50 online courses and teaches more than 130,000 students. While he now focuses on his business full-time, he hit the 6-figure income mark before leaving his day job. In this episode we chat about how he comes up with course ideas, how he structures his content, and he markets his material, along of course with the tech he uses to get it all done. Full Show Note...
Feb 18, 2016•42 min
I'm happy to introduce Greg Mercer, who is the go-to guy for Amazon product research. His own ecommerce empire has grown to $400k per month in revenue -- yes, per month -- and he's the founder of the popular Jungle Scout software tool that helps make the product research process faster and easier. In this call we dive into his specific sales criteria and next steps in evaluating a product's profit potential and how to bring it to market on Amazon. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Amazon F...
Feb 11, 2016•39 min
Assad's a Finance Director by day so he's got some street cred when it came to offering consulting, and quickly built that business up to around $1000 a month. In April, he mentioned he'd also started selling products on Amazon FBA using the clearance arbitrage model Travis Scott shared on the show. Nine months later, that little experiment had grown into a six-figure side hustle. Check out our conversation to learn how it happened. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Amazon FBA Retail Arbit...
Feb 04, 2016•34 min
When it comes to your side hustle, the words you use matter. In so many businesses, our first impressions with customers often come from a website, an email, or a product description. Are you sending the right message? Is it unique and powerful enough to stand out from the crowd? Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Copywriting Tips for Side Hustlers
Jan 28, 2016•38 min
My guest this week, Brian Swichkow, is a viral marketing pro, having achieved outsize results on several different projects. Having one viral hit could be considered a lucky fluke, but to be able to do it again and again, and you start to recognize a repeatable, learnable pattern. That's what listeners can look forward to in this episode; how you can apply Brian's tactics to your own side hustle to get more visitors, leads, and customers. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: How to Get Traffi...
Jan 21, 2016•36 min
Jonathan Stark says the key to side hustle success -- for consultants, at least -- lies in finding an expensive problem, and solving it. Jonathan's a pro at finding these expensive problems, having run a successful online consulting business for several years, focusing on mobile-ready web development. At the recommendation of two-time Side Hustle Show guest, Kai Davis, he dropped by to share some of his insight on how to get a side hustle consulting business off the ground. Full Show Notes and P...
Jan 14, 2016•37 min
We've heard of niche sites seeing success with AdSense or Amazon Associates income, or even with selling private advertising, but Jon Haws took a completely different approach. Since last November, Jon has: Released more than 150 podcast episodes. Written nearly 3 dozen Kindle books. Created the definitive course on pharmacy medications. Built a nursing test-prep app that gets 100+ downloads a day. Started to sell physical products for nursing students with Amazon FBA. All told, these different ...
Jan 07, 2016•37 min
