669: The Piggyback Principle: The “Lazy” Way to Build a Successful Side Hustle

0:00:05 The piggyback principle, the lazy way to build a successful side hustle.
0:00:09 My kids will tell you, it’s easier to get a piggyback ride than climbing the mountain
0:00:09 by yourself.
0:00:15 And you’ve heard the metaphor that a rising tide lifts all boats, but the secret is those
0:00:20 tides are all around us and you can take advantage of them in just about every area of your business.
0:00:25 I’m tackling three of those areas today, starting with idea generation, then we’ll cover the
0:00:29 startup or creation phase and close with the growth and marketing segment.
0:00:33 For all of those, I’m going to show you how to get a piggyback ride.
0:00:35 In the world of cycling, it would be drafting.
0:00:39 If it was swimming, it’s like, how do I swim downstream instead of against the current?
0:00:42 And I believe there is a way to do that.
0:00:45 And that’s why I want to propose the piggyback principle in this episode.
0:00:50 It’s a concept I first wrote about probably 10 years ago on the Cyan Hustle Nation site.
0:00:53 But at that time, I took a pretty narrow view of it.
0:00:56 Really, it was just about taking advantage of marketplace trends.
0:01:01 At that time, it was things like the rise of WordPress or the popularity of the paleo diet.
0:01:04 And of course, those trends shift over time.
0:01:08 But all else being equal, I’d like to be in a business where there’s going to be more customers
0:01:10 tomorrow than there are today.
0:01:14 We may have talked about this recently, but I remember a guy from Philip Morris coming to
0:01:16 talk to our group in a business school.
0:01:19 And we were like, isn’t cigarettes a dying industry?
0:01:24 And he had to admit that it was, but it was slowly declining around 3% a year, he told us.
0:01:27 That’s the opposite of a piggyback principle business.
0:01:31 Make life easier for yourself by setting up shop where demand is increasing.
0:01:34 So how do you find those kinds of ideas?
0:01:35 Lots of different ways to go about it.
0:01:39 One interesting place to start is explodingtopics.com.
0:01:44 I really like this site because it just shows you on the homepage, it’s a random feed of things
0:01:48 that have increased in search volume over the last several months or several years.
0:01:50 I’m going to go through a few of these.
0:01:56 One that came up, there’s all things AI, of course, AI logo generator, AI image enhancer.
0:01:58 There’s one for lash clusters.
0:02:01 I assume this is eyelashes or like a physical product thing.
0:02:04 Interesting one around a fractional CTO.
0:02:09 In the trends episode with Spencer, we talked about the rise of fractional job roles from
0:02:11 the freelancing or consulting side.
0:02:15 You know, maybe elevates your status a little bit to call yourself a fractional CTO rather
0:02:21 than a freelance web developer or freelance, you know, technical expert, whatever your expertise
0:02:22 may be.
0:02:25 There is an exploding topic around beef tallow.
0:02:26 I don’t know what that is.
0:02:28 Remineralizing gum.
0:02:32 I don’t know what that is either, but if you do, or if you could find it someplace, somebody
0:02:33 help manufacture that, maybe.
0:02:35 A trend around cold plunge tub.
0:02:37 We were just talking about this with the neighbors the other day.
0:02:41 An increase of interest in cold plunge tubs.
0:02:45 Maybe there’s a way to bring something like that to market or sell something into that audience.
0:02:50 Now, exploding topics and sites like that are good if you’re idea agnostic.
0:02:52 You’re just looking for broad patterns and trends.
0:02:57 If you have an idea already, and maybe a hint would be to ask yourself the usual questions
0:03:00 of, well, what do people already ask me for help with?
0:03:02 What do I spend my spare time on?
0:03:04 What do I spend my money on?
0:03:06 What am I curious to learn more about?
0:03:08 What do I know more about than the average person?
0:03:14 Those types of questions can help guide or steer your idea generating session in one direction
0:03:15 or another.
0:03:20 But if you have something in mind, you might punch it into Google Trends to see whether interest
0:03:23 in that topic is increasing or decreasing.
0:03:27 If it’s decreasing, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t build a business around it.
0:03:30 It just means it might be harder than picking an increasing topic, right?
0:03:33 Going back to the cigarette use declining 3% a year.
0:03:35 All else being equal, pick the one that’s increasing.
0:03:39 Now, I want to be upfront and say I did none of this when I was starting Side Hustle Nation,
0:03:46 but I did have kind of this innate sense that more people would be interested in entrepreneurship
0:03:52 given all the opportunities opened up by different online platforms and reasoned that, you know,
0:03:54 making extra money never really goes out of style.
0:04:00 So sometimes we get fixated on trying to fit the proverbial round peg into the square hole
0:04:04 so much so that we don’t pay much attention to what’s working in the marketplace or how other
0:04:09 people are making money or even what other people might happily pay us for.
0:04:13 This is one of my favorite lines from the Side Hustle Show, all-time favorite lines,
0:04:18 and it comes from Austin Church in episode 417, where he says,
0:04:21 pay attention to what wants to happen.
0:04:24 Pay attention to what wants to happen.
0:04:29 When you first get into freelancing, it seems like the wild, wild west,
0:04:33 and you may have a lot of opportunities, and then you think,
0:04:35 well, I’m going to go after this one.
0:04:43 But oftentimes the second or third project or opportunity or client or whatever
0:04:48 is the thing that’s more scalable, the thing that will be more sustainable and satisfying.
0:04:55 So just keep your eyes open, and maybe another way to put it is look for the,
0:04:58 the easiest money you can make in freelancing.
0:05:00 What’s the path of least resistance?
0:05:02 How can you swim downstream?
0:05:05 What would it look like if it were easy to borrow a line from Tim Ferriss?
0:05:08 Pay attention to what wants to happen.
0:05:10 Thanks to Austin Church from that one, from episode 417.
0:05:16 In my case, it took longer than I care to admit to notice how other quote-unquote personal finance blogs made money,
0:05:21 or how other podcasts had switched to dynamic ad insertion and left me behind.
0:05:26 But the subtle art of coming up for air and looking around is an underrated entrepreneurial skill.
0:05:32 Another resource you can use to identify trending areas or topics that are growing in interest is Reddit,
0:05:36 and specifically looking for subreddit growth.
0:05:40 I found one site called RedStats, R-E-D-D-Stats.com.
0:05:44 There are several of these, which highlight some of the fastest growing subreddits,
0:05:48 both in terms of raw new members and percentage growth.
0:05:52 So, I was just scrolling through and found some interesting hobby-related ones.
0:05:56 We just did the coin collecting episode, or if not, maybe it’s about to air soon.
0:05:59 So, the coin collecting subreddit has made this list.
0:06:02 Fantasy football advice made this list.
0:06:06 We had Hefger Lackon about his Australian fantasy football podcast.
0:06:11 There was a growing subreddit on body language, if you happen to be a body language expert.
0:06:15 And then the other one that stood out to me here was fine hair.
0:06:17 Fine hair as a subreddit.
0:06:19 Now, I have no hair, so maybe there’s a no hair subreddit.
0:06:22 But we’ve got episodes on Delilah Orpey.
0:06:25 She built a curly hair blog, curly hair online business.
0:06:33 Katie Emery has katiegoesplatinum.com, a website and YouTube channel dedicated to going gray, gray hair.
0:06:37 So, maybe there is room to build an online business around fine hair.
0:06:42 And it appears to be growing in interest based on some of these subreddit stats.
0:06:46 Now, the question comes up, what if there’s somebody already doing that?
0:06:48 Or what if somebody else is already playing in that space?
0:06:53 There are already coin collecting influencers or body language experts.
0:06:56 And I get that that can be discouraging.
0:06:58 But it might actually be a good sign.
0:07:03 If somebody else has carved out a following and possibly is making some money in a niche you’re
0:07:10 considering, that’s at least a signal that you might be able to do the same, especially if it’s in an area of increasing demand.
0:07:15 Here’s Nick Huber from episode 373 on how he evaluates potential ideas.
0:07:17 I’m passionate about building something.
0:07:18 I’m passionate about entrepreneurship.
0:07:21 And I’m passionate about taking steps forward every single day.
0:07:24 And I want to do what I want to do in my free time, right away from work.
0:07:28 And the goal here for me is have a five-year plan so that I don’t have to work a whole lot.
0:07:32 And I can do what I’m passionate about and not be stressed out about earning money doing those things.
0:07:32 All right.
0:07:32 What else?
0:07:34 So I look at a rising demand.
0:07:36 Like I said, people are outsourcing more.
0:07:38 The pie is getting bigger every single day.
0:07:41 20 years ago, 5% of people paid someone to come mow their lawn.
0:07:43 And today, 40% of people do.
0:07:46 I’m guessing 10 years from now, that number will be well over 50%.
0:07:53 So there’s more and more and more customers coming on the market every single day that are using these local services.
0:07:55 And the big one is competition.
0:07:56 We already touched on it a little bit.
0:08:00 But if you’re looking at who you’re competing with and what kind of models they’re using,
0:08:08 it’s pretty easy to choose a local service business based on how they do business than try to compete with the tech entrepreneurs,
0:08:13 the online entrepreneurs who are not necessarily location-independent and really, really good at what they do.
0:08:15 Where is the pie getting bigger?
0:08:21 How does that intersect with something you’re already interested in or curious about or something you already have some expertise in?
0:08:26 Again, that’s Nick Huber from Sweaty Startup in episode 373 on The Side Hustle Show.
0:08:32 And he makes this point that writing a trend, finding a growing industry is one thing, but it’s not the only thing.
0:08:35 Here’s how Noah Kagan explained it in episode 595.
0:08:41 There’s all these different trends.co and meetglimpse.com and a few other ways to get business trends.
0:08:46 I think the best trends to find are just reverse looking at the things that you’re spending your time doing.
0:08:49 I’m spending a lot of time lately looking at parenting stuff.
0:08:50 I’m about to be a parent in the next few months.
0:08:52 It’s like, okay, what are my frustrations around that?
0:08:54 Or what are the things I’m asking or curious about?
0:09:00 And then the other kind of thing besides shrimp breeding, which I’m not as into, it was just kind of an observation of research.
0:09:03 And I do like shrimp, but I do like a lot of shrimp taco.
0:09:06 For me, it’s just looking at my credit card bill.
0:09:07 It’s a lot of where AppSumo came from.
0:09:09 It’s just like, oh, I want this stuff.
0:09:10 How do I get a deal on it?
0:09:16 One of the ideas as well that we’re talking about doing ideas instead of shrimp breeding, I hate paying for HelloSign and DocuSign.
0:09:19 And I just looked up DocuSign’s at $11 billion company.
0:09:19 Wow.
0:09:22 I think I could probably kick their butt creating an alternative to that.
0:09:33 But again, coming to these trends, it’s trying to see where the trend is based on my own interests, looking at Google Trends to just see if it’s something that’s even starting to get bigger or if it’s growing or declining.
0:09:36 And then considering, one, if you don’t even want to do any of the work, just go make content about it.
0:09:46 So for Noah, he is looking for ideas that piggyback on his own areas of interest or curiosity, his own pain points or frustrations, and then marrying that to a broader role.
0:09:54 And going back to Nick Huber, you may not even have to start the lawn mowing service to take advantage of the sweaty startup trend he’s talking about.
0:10:05 We had Ryan Golgoski on the show, episode 550, I want to say, who built an incredible recurring revenue business doing web design, hosting, and maintenance for pressure washing companies.
0:10:07 More people were starting these power washing businesses.
0:10:09 That was the frontline trend.
0:10:16 But that caused this domino effect, this subsequent trend of those businesses needing websites to improve their online presence and digital marketing.
0:10:20 So Ryan swooped in to help out with a creative pricing model that was a win-win.
0:10:24 So how do you know when you’ve hit upon the right idea?
0:10:26 One clue is, it just won’t go away.
0:10:30 Yeah, well, first I tried to make the idea go away because it just felt crazy.
0:10:31 You know, I have two young kids.
0:10:32 I’m running a photography business.
0:10:34 I was the breadwinner for my family.
0:10:38 It felt crazy to, you know, divide my attention and try to start a whole other business.
0:10:42 So I really tried to ignore it for a while, but I got to where I couldn’t sleep.
0:10:45 Like, the idea would not leave me alone.
0:10:49 And so a couple months later, I just decided, you know what, I’m going to go for this.
0:10:52 And that night, I found our software that we could use.
0:10:57 I had a friend who gave me the name that day, who named it Statement.
0:11:01 And then I stayed up all night building a website on Squarespace.
0:11:04 And I just thought, you know what, this idea will not leave me alone.
0:11:05 I have to do it.
0:11:06 Like, I had no other choice.
0:11:12 That’s Sarah McCaffrey from episode 640, describing the inspiration for her clothing consignment
0:11:16 business statement consignment in Knoxville, I want to say.
0:11:18 The idea wouldn’t leave her alone.
0:11:21 If you get an idea like that, take fast action.
0:11:24 Because as she said later in that episode, inspiration can be temporary.
0:11:28 So that’s how I’m thinking of the piggyback principle in the idea phase.
0:11:32 Looking for rising trends that you can tap into with some of the resources that we mentioned
0:11:35 related to subreddit growth or Google trends or exploding topics.
0:11:40 And looking at those trends either as a frontline participant or a support participant, a shovel
0:11:45 seller into that particular gold rush, and then paying attention to what wants to happen.
0:11:49 Swimming downstream, following the simplest and most direct path, recognizing that choosing
0:11:54 what’s next doesn’t have to mean choosing what’s forever, but looking for what comes easy to
0:11:57 you that other people ask you for help with or have a hard time with.
0:12:01 We’re moving on to the startup or creation phase of the side hustle journey and how you can
0:12:06 apply the piggyback principle there to streamline and accelerate your process right after this.
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0:13:13 Lots of scrappy side hustlers start their business with just their personal phone number.
0:13:13 I’ve been there.
0:13:16 I remember checking customer voicemails between classes in college.
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0:14:23 I remember reading this book, That’ll Never Work is about the early days of Netflix and
0:14:27 specifically the part that stood out to me was having to go out and raise $2 million to
0:14:33 hire developers to build a shopping cart checkout system and payment processing system before
0:14:34 they could even really open up for business.
0:14:36 There was no Stripe.
0:14:36 There was no Shopify.
0:14:37 There was no Squarespace.
0:14:38 No WordPress.
0:14:44 It was really eye-opening how much easier it’s become over the last 25 years to be open for
0:14:49 business online, sometimes in a matter of hours for a whole lot less than $2 million.
0:14:55 We talked about the piggyback principle as it comes to ideas, looking to pair market trends with what
0:15:00 wants to happen, what feels easy, those businesses where you can swim downstream instead of fighting
0:15:01 against the current.
0:15:06 In this section, I want to highlight what happens next, the creation or startup phase of your
0:15:07 side hustle.
0:15:12 An easy example for me to point to is simply the huge library of WordPress themes out there,
0:15:13 many of them completely free.
0:15:18 One of my most successful side hustles was my virtual assistant directory and review site,
0:15:22 which would kind of have been an intimidating project to start from scratch.
0:15:29 So instead, what I did was copy the exact WordPress theme from a review site that I found in another
0:15:29 niche.
0:15:31 It’s a free WordPress theme.
0:15:36 Anybody could have done that and then pivoted the content to be about virtual assistants instead
0:15:39 of about wine clubs was the one that I took inspiration from.
0:15:44 That way, the only thing I had to worry about was the content, which was still a lot of work to
0:15:49 create, but it was a lot easier than worrying about the content and building out a website
0:15:50 template from scratch.
0:15:52 Same thing with the star ratings on the site.
0:15:54 How do I get those to show up on the posts?
0:15:55 I didn’t know.
0:15:56 I’d never done it before.
0:16:02 Turns out there’s lots of free or low cost review plugins for WordPress that would accomplish
0:16:02 that.
0:16:03 Didn’t have to start from scratch.
0:16:04 You don’t either.
0:16:10 A few weeks ago, Cody Berman gave the example of using Canva templates to accelerate digital
0:16:14 product creation, many of which are free or even the paid version of Canva is super affordable,
0:16:18 way more affordable than hiring a graphic designer to build all this out for you from scratch.
0:16:24 He even talked about repeating a template for the Etsy product listings themselves so he’s
0:16:28 not staring at a blank screen every time it comes to upload a product.
0:16:31 So I’ll start with templates because we did talk about product templates.
0:16:33 Like you just take the base template.
0:16:35 Let’s use a thank you card, for example.
0:16:38 And then you can go create a million different variations of thank you card.
0:16:39 We mentioned that before.
0:16:43 What I didn’t mention, though, is that you can actually have the entire Etsy listing as a
0:16:44 quote unquote template.
0:16:51 So if I’m going to create, let’s say I already have a Father’s Day card in my Etsy shop and
0:16:55 I want to create a Mother’s Day card, I can literally duplicate the listing and then I just
0:16:56 go back into Canva.
0:16:58 I just like change the listing images.
0:16:59 I change the actual product itself.
0:17:01 I change some of the tags.
0:17:06 I slightly altered the description, but I can actually use a lot of the same features from
0:17:07 that initial listing.
0:17:12 So for me now, if I were to actually do that using this real example, like if I were to have
0:17:15 a Father’s Day card that I want to make into a Mother’s Day card, it would probably take
0:17:17 me like 15 to 20 minutes total.
0:17:20 I might on the actual design change the colors from blue to pink.
0:17:24 And I’m obviously going to change the word father to mother and some other changes like
0:17:27 the tags where you can use 13 tags per Etsy listing.
0:17:30 I would change some of those to be specific to the holiday.
0:17:36 But using the entirety of your Etsy listing as a template is something not many people do.
0:17:38 Like even the listing images you were just asking about, Nick.
0:17:42 Yeah, I have eight listing images that I’m using for all my products and it’s just
0:17:43 drag and drop.
0:17:45 Like I’m using Canva templates using like the frames feature.
0:17:50 And so when I create the new product, I’m just like dragging and dropping back into those
0:17:50 same templates.
0:17:54 So I’m not having to recreate the wheel every single time with my listing images.
0:17:57 I’ll do the same thing when it comes to a new article for the website.
0:18:00 You can look at the best ranking topics on that topic.
0:18:05 Look at what those already include and then fill in the blanks with your own take on that
0:18:05 subject.
0:18:10 And even if you have no idea what Cody’s talking about with, you know, Etsy, Canva and
0:18:15 template, the important thing is you probably don’t have to start from scratch with any project.
0:18:18 And to me, that’s really empowering and motivating.
0:18:22 Remember looking at the blank screen of a new book project, for example, like, how am I ever
0:18:23 going to do this?
0:18:27 It’s like, oh, I already have kind of an outline and I already have some content related
0:18:31 to, you know, a few of those outline topics.
0:18:34 And if I can paste that in, I’m going to have to massage it later.
0:18:34 I know that.
0:18:37 But all of a sudden I can take my word count from zero to 7,000.
0:18:40 I feel really, really motivated by that.
0:18:44 It feels like you’re making quite a bit of progress right out of the gate, taking advantage
0:18:49 of what’s already been built to stand on the shoulders to speak of those who’ve gone before
0:18:52 you and to minimize the reinventing of any wheels.
0:18:56 Now, you still got to do the work, but the common thread is to use what’s already out
0:19:00 there and then personalize it, customize it to your needs and your niche.
0:19:04 If you’re not sure what you need, you might even enlist AI to help.
0:19:10 It can save you a lot of headache down the road if you kind of prompt an AI for the big
0:19:11 picture first.
0:19:13 Number one, have an idea in some way.
0:19:20 I think the second big step is asking AI, ChatTPT, Claude, Google, doesn’t matter, asking
0:19:21 for the big picture.
0:19:25 Say, I want to create a WordPress plugin that does this and does this and does this.
0:19:30 What are the big steps to implementation and what tools should I use?
0:19:34 And AI is going to give you a lot of things you can kind of choose from and be like, oh,
0:19:35 Firebase.
0:19:36 That’s free.
0:19:37 It’s made by Google.
0:19:37 Okay.
0:19:41 I can use Firebase for my backend, my database.
0:19:47 I’m not a backend developer at all, but I know I need to store information somewhere in a spreadsheet
0:19:48 or database or something.
0:19:53 So I use Firebase and I found it from AI that was like, oh, you could use Firebase for this
0:19:54 because it’s free.
0:19:56 It has a database.
0:20:01 It has authentication where people can log in to your app and creates a cookie and this
0:20:02 sort of stuff.
0:20:05 Again, I don’t even know how all of these things work, but start with the big picture.
0:20:08 Start by kind of choosing some tools.
0:20:12 Even if you don’t know what tools you need yet, no one does, right?
0:20:13 Ask AI.
0:20:14 Ask the big picture.
0:20:18 We were talking in the context of using AI to help build software apps and tools.
0:20:24 This was episode 659, just a recent one, but I think this exercise will be helpful in just
0:20:29 about any project, help build out an outline and then start chipping away and filling in
0:20:32 the gaps because it’ll probably come up with things that you didn’t even consider that might
0:20:33 be important.
0:20:40 Now, later on in that episode, episode 659, again, Pete talked about the abundance of off
0:20:47 the shelf and often free tools that are available to aspiring developers, especially those that help
0:20:52 with the behind the scenes technical parts of your project and how the coding tools now
0:20:53 have AI built in.
0:20:56 So you can just prompt it in plain English to start building your thing.
0:21:01 And if you know your niche or the target customer you’re trying to serve, you can even take one
0:21:04 step back and ask for product or content suggestions.
0:21:09 You can actually ask ChatGPT to give you product suggestions based on your niche.
0:21:14 So you can do a prompt, which could be, please give me, like I’m really polite to ChatGPT.
0:21:19 So all of a sudden, like, please give me like 10 product ideas in the money-saving niche for
0:21:22 printables or digital products or just whatever.
0:21:23 And it will spit it out.
0:21:26 It will give you like 10 different product ideas or you can even ask it for 20 ideas or
0:21:28 just any amount you would want.
0:21:30 And it gives you all these ideas.
0:21:35 But then you can also take that data it gave you and actually go on and research for yourself
0:21:39 to see if it’s trending on Google, if any of it is doing well on Etsy.
0:21:41 Are people on Etsy getting sales with this topic?
0:21:42 Yeah.
0:21:45 Have they come up with any good ones that you hadn’t considered before?
0:21:49 I really, really like the checklist idea that you were saying about the routine checklist.
0:21:51 Like, I think that would be better than a planner.
0:21:52 So I want to do that.
0:21:54 But you helped me come up with that idea.
0:21:54 So I don’t know.
0:21:59 Yeah, so I typed in, this is probably not the best prompt in the world.
0:22:04 Please give me some digital product ideas for printables in the side hustle niche.
0:22:10 And it came back with business planner, budget tracker, social media content calendar, productivity
0:22:15 worksheets, Etsy shop optimization checklist, which could easily be repurposed to a website
0:22:17 optimization checklist.
0:22:21 Actually, I have a whole book on like the small business website checklist from like 2013 or
0:22:22 something.
0:22:24 Business card templates, market research worksheets.
0:22:26 I think that’s a really interesting one.
0:22:29 Like if you’re evaluating a different niche, like, okay, here’s how you ought to go about
0:22:31 thinking about that.
0:22:34 I think that’s really creative inventory management sheets.
0:22:39 If you’ve got a physical product expense deduction worksheets, like if you’re in the finance
0:22:41 accounting space, that’s really interesting one.
0:22:43 Client management templates.
0:22:48 If you’re in a service-based business logo and branding templates, content creation templates,
0:22:50 that’s an interesting one.
0:22:53 Like, oh, we’re creating product reviews as part of our side hustle.
0:22:55 Like, you know, here’s kind of like a fill in the blank.
0:23:00 Template that is proven based on some level of SEO metrics or something.
0:23:01 That’s interesting.
0:23:04 Self-care and work-life balance planners.
0:23:06 The product launch checklist.
0:23:08 I think I have a book launch checklist.
0:23:09 Like, that’s an interesting one.
0:23:11 I think I just have as a freebie right now.
0:23:14 But that could be a paid product in certain spaces.
0:23:18 Customer feedback, surveys, printable coupons and promotions.
0:23:19 Affiliate marketing planner.
0:23:23 If you’re going out to recruit affiliates to sell your product, here’s how you’re going
0:23:25 to plan out your affiliate campaigns.
0:23:28 And the skill development tracker.
0:23:29 Man, chat GPT.
0:23:33 I think these are pretty solid suggestions that it came up with just for that.
0:23:38 So, you might try that prompt or a variation of it to see what comes back in your space.
0:23:40 Yeah, it just gives you so many really good product ideas.
0:23:42 Like, I like the launch checklist the best.
0:23:45 Like, that launch one, you know, that show people how they could launch a product.
0:23:47 Like, that’s a really solid idea right there.
0:23:50 That’s Becky Beach from episode 582.
0:23:55 And she went on to share how you can keep working with AI and existing product templates to build
0:24:00 something that’s both unique to you, it’s got your personal insights, and faster than starting
0:24:01 with that blank slate.
0:24:05 So, we talked about the piggyback principle when it comes to taking advantage of existing tools
0:24:08 and templates and leaning on technology to help accelerate things.
0:24:13 But there’s another area in the creation and startup phase that’s ripe for piggybacking.
0:24:15 And that’s what I call expertise piggybacking.
0:24:18 This could come in the form of hiring help.
0:24:22 It could take the form of investing in a course or coaching.
0:24:28 And I might even lump in process automation into this category as well in the name of systemizing
0:24:31 and streamlining an ongoing thing in your business.
0:24:33 But first up, I want to talk about expertise piggybacking.
0:24:37 And the reality is you can’t expect to know how to do everything that you need to know how
0:24:38 to do in your business.
0:24:44 Or if you do, it’s a recipe for frustration or really slow progress.
0:24:46 You’re trying to figure it all out on your own.
0:24:47 I’ll give the example.
0:24:51 Last year, I was testing out a new plugin on SideHustleNation.
0:24:54 The early results seemed positive.
0:24:57 I was getting more clicks, better engagement, higher affiliate earnings.
0:25:03 The only problem was it broke my old affiliate tracking system and Google Analytics that I’ve
0:25:08 been using for years, and I relied on that for performance reporting to go back and forth.
0:25:12 And this was going on for months with the plugin support team, just trying to get this thing
0:25:13 sorted out.
0:25:14 Hey, why did it break my analytics?
0:25:16 Oh, give us the access.
0:25:17 Give us the login.
0:25:18 We’ll troubleshoot it.
0:25:24 I would open up the source code of the website like some kind of Sherlock Holmes HTML detective
0:25:27 with no idea what I was looking for.
0:25:30 I was deep inside analytics.
0:25:31 Had no business doing that.
0:25:32 The thing was still broken.
0:25:37 I was frustrated, and then it kind of hit me who, not how.
0:25:41 Somebody, somewhere, even if it’s not the creator of the plugin, somebody knows how to
0:25:42 solve this problem.
0:25:47 In that case, it was a freelancer on Upwork, a Google Analytics Pro who I had actually worked
0:25:48 with before from Upwork.
0:25:50 20 minutes, 100 bucks.
0:25:52 He solves the problem off to the races.
0:25:54 Why did I wait months to send him a message?
0:25:57 I don’t know, but that was on me.
0:26:04 I still think the skill of figuring things out is a super important one for entrepreneurs.
0:26:05 Everything is figureoutable.
0:26:08 That’s kind of your job is to figure out the next step, the next thing.
0:26:13 But sometimes the fastest way to figure is to just get some trusted guidance.
0:26:16 One way to do that is to hire some expert help.
0:26:21 Another way to get that trusted guidance and to shortcut your launch learning curve is to
0:26:23 get some coaching from people who’ve been there and done that.
0:26:28 Now, it’s not for everyone because it increases your startup costs, but a little bit of education
0:26:30 and mentorship can go a long way.
0:26:33 And this works for high-tech businesses or low-tech ones.
0:26:38 Like, one of the lowest tech ones, I can recall, is Brian Winch’s parking lot cleanup business.
0:26:42 And he sells a little guide for other people to start something similar in their area.
0:26:48 I actually connected with a student of Brian’s who said that extra bit of insight and guidance
0:26:50 made a big difference in his confidence.
0:26:54 I actually started looking at the article and it was basically saying,
0:26:59 hey, you can make money picking up litter on commercial properties.
0:27:04 So at that time, I was like, hey, this is something that I felt comfortable with that I could do.
0:27:11 I wound up seeing, his name was Brian, and I wound up reaching out to Brian from Clean Lots.
0:27:15 And I was like, hey, Brian, hey, by any chance, do you think that service will work in my area?
0:27:19 And he got back to me, he says, anywhere where it’s parking lot.
0:27:20 And I was like, wow, okay.
0:27:27 Yeah, so you’re thinking, hey, this is a low startup costs, no specialized skills required.
0:27:28 Is it going to work in my area?
0:27:30 Well, yeah, I got parking lots around me.
0:27:36 This is Brian Winch, you mentioned, from Clean Lots in episode 266 of the Side Hustle Show.
0:27:38 So he kind of gives you the green light.
0:27:41 It’s like, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
0:27:42 Right, right.
0:27:47 He had a book that he had on his site that he was like selling.
0:27:50 And then I brought the book and I read it in like in two days.
0:27:56 And then at the end of the book, after I finished reading it, it had a phone number there.
0:27:59 And it was like, whoa, it said, if you have any questions, please call me.
0:28:00 Brian did.
0:28:03 And I was like, actually, I picked up the phone.
0:28:04 I gave him a call.
0:28:08 And I was like, you know, I started asking him questions.
0:28:10 And Brian was, you know, he was such a nice guy.
0:28:13 You know, he was straightforward to me.
0:28:17 He was telling me how basically he says, you want to make sure you get started right away
0:28:19 and don’t waste any time.
0:28:21 And I was like, wow.
0:28:25 With that little talk I had with him, I felt like so much confidence.
0:28:28 I felt like, oh, it’s something I could do, you know, in my area.
0:28:34 That’s Vladimir Hernandez from episode 522, who, when we spoke, was doing six figures on the
0:28:37 side from his New York area parking lot sweeping business.
0:28:40 So it was an investment in coaching that paid off.
0:28:45 And we’ve heard from other side hustle show guests like Anthony in episode 662, who joined
0:28:47 Mike Hoffman’s vendingpreneur community.
0:28:52 Skyler in episode 645 mentioned Johnny Robinson’s Home Services Academy.
0:28:58 Going way back, Brian Schooley mentioned Mark Wills’ loan signing system to learn the mobile
0:28:59 notary business.
0:29:01 And I want to make one thing clear, though.
0:29:06 Investing in a side hustle, quote unquote, program or course, definitely not a requirement.
0:29:12 But like Vladimir described, it can be a confidence booster to be following a known playbook versus
0:29:17 trying to figure it out all on your own, which is definitely in alignment with the piggyback
0:29:18 principle.
0:29:25 I go back to the book Smart Cuts by Shane Snow, I think, and he outlines outlier cases.
0:29:30 He kind of calls them people who achieved uncommon success at an early age or earlier than normal.
0:29:32 And one of the common factors was mentorship.
0:29:37 In other words, they definitely worked for it, but they had help.
0:29:38 They piggybacked.
0:29:43 So to use the piggyback principle in the startup and creation phase, you most likely don’t have
0:29:45 to start completely from scratch.
0:29:49 Take advantage of prebuilt templates from website themes and off the shelf software.
0:29:53 Ask AI for the big picture outline of what you’re going to need and start filling in those
0:29:54 gaps.
0:29:59 And don’t discount the advantage of piggybacking on other people’s expertise, either in the form
0:30:00 of hired help or education.
0:30:05 The piggyback principle continues in just a moment with the marketing and growth piece of
0:30:06 your side hustle puzzle.
0:30:11 Thankfully, there are several specific ways you can piggyback in this area, and I’ll break
0:30:14 those down with real life examples right after this.
0:30:19 When you’re starting anything new, there comes a point when the initial excitement wears off
0:30:21 and the decision fatigue might start to set in.
0:30:26 That’s why it’s so important to find the right tools and support that not only help you out,
0:30:28 but also simplify things down the road.
0:30:33 For millions of businesses, including dozens of side hustle show guests, one of those tools is our
0:30:34 partner Shopify.
0:30:40 With dozens of ready-to-use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store and start
0:30:41 selling.
0:30:46 Plus, their built-in AI tools help you write product descriptions, page headlines, and even
0:30:49 enhance your product photography so you can make the most of your limited hours.
0:30:52 But it’s a lot more than just pretty pictures and great design.
0:30:58 Shopify brings in world-class expertise in managing inventory, shipping, processing returns,
0:30:59 and more.
0:31:01 If you’re ready to sell, you’re ready for Shopify.
0:31:06 Turn your big business idea into with Shopify on your side.
0:31:12 Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash side hustle.
0:31:14 Go to shopify.com slash side hustle.
0:31:17 Shopify.com slash side hustle.
0:31:22 Free audio post-production.
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0:31:44 I would use Indeed.
0:31:46 Indeed was really, really helpful at first.
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0:32:33 So far in this episode, we’ve explored how to use the piggyback principle to make your
0:32:38 life easier in the idea generation and startup creation phase of your business.
0:32:42 Now we get to talk about the fun part, how to actually get customers and make some money.
0:32:47 When I was outlining this episode, the first thing that came to mind for the piggyback principle
0:32:51 in marketing was to tap into pre-existing marketplaces.
0:32:54 I wrote a whole book about this with hundreds of examples in 2016.
0:33:00 It was called Buy Buttons, which as a meta example, taps into the Amazon marketplace as
0:33:01 a way of finding customers.
0:33:03 Hey, where do people buy books?
0:33:03 They buy them on Amazon.
0:33:06 I might as well put it up for sale there.
0:33:08 That’s the thesis of Buy Buttons.
0:33:13 Put your product or service up for sale where people are already searching for what you have
0:33:13 to sell.
0:33:18 Not particularly earth shattering advice and maybe not a strategy you want to rely on forever
0:33:20 because all those platforms have fees.
0:33:25 But when you’re trying to get some visibility and awareness, it makes sense to get in front
0:33:27 of customers where they might already be looking.
0:33:31 I see a lot of entrepreneurs intentionally or unintentionally avoiding these marketplaces
0:33:34 and trying to attract customers all on their own.
0:33:36 Say, for example, you wanted to start a takeout delivery service.
0:33:42 You would need to find a reliable way for customers to order and partner with hundreds of different
0:33:44 restaurants so people could order what they want.
0:33:49 Or you could sign up for DoorDash because they’ve already solved those problems and have
0:33:52 a critical mass of buyers already using the app.
0:33:57 And maybe that’s a simplified example, but there’s a niche marketplace for just about everything
0:33:58 these days.
0:34:04 I bought this podcast mic off a secondhand marketplace that specializes just in audio equipment.
0:34:05 Reverb, I want to say.
0:34:06 I’m not sure if they’re still around.
0:34:09 Another example came from Summer Fisher in episode 652.
0:34:13 Summer had a unique rental business in that she was renting out dresses.
0:34:16 But she actually didn’t invent that idea.
0:34:21 Instead, she tapped into a couple marketplaces that already existed and already had customers.
0:34:24 And I just thought they were going to rent them on, I don’t know, Facebook Marketplace
0:34:26 or Depop or something like that.
0:34:32 And I looked into it and I realized there’s this whole industry around dress rentals.
0:34:33 I put up two dresses.
0:34:40 One day I was just sitting in my car at my daughter’s cheer practice and one of them rented and I got
0:34:43 a notification that it had rented and I was like, oh my God, I just rented a dress.
0:34:45 But now what do I do?
0:34:48 I didn’t really understand it and I just kind of went all in.
0:34:53 So I kind of worked it out as I went along and then I ended up putting all the dresses up
0:34:57 then that I had been flipping and it kind of grew from there.
0:35:00 And then I started buying dresses specifically to rent.
0:35:04 There’s online sites where you can rent dresses basically.
0:35:06 So they’re different in every country.
0:35:09 So for us in Australia, there’s a site called The Vault.
0:35:13 A big one in the US and the UK is By Rotation.
0:35:17 So there’s several of these type of websites and they’re kind of peer-to-peer lending.
0:35:23 So basically you can put up your own wardrobe or like I do, run it as a business and rent to
0:35:23 other people.
0:35:27 And that’s Summer Fisher in episode 652.
0:35:29 Bet you never thought of dresses as an asset class.
0:35:30 I know I definitely didn’t.
0:35:32 But she built a great business renting them out.
0:35:37 And importantly, she wasn’t trying to create demand from scratch or build an audience.
0:35:42 There was already demand and already an audience and a place to get in front of them in the form
0:35:45 of those niche rental marketplaces.
0:35:50 We talked about Amazon and Etsy and Rover and TaskRabbit and Udemy and Teachers Pay Teachers
0:35:55 and Fiverr and Upwork and even sites like Cloud of Goods for mobility scooter rentals.
0:36:01 Generally speaking, the more niche the marketplace, the better when you’re starting out or the more
0:36:03 niche your service needs to be to stand out.
0:36:08 Because obviously platforms like Amazon and Etsy and Fiverr are more crowded than they were
0:36:09 a decade ago.
0:36:14 But it’s important to remember that the buyer population is a lot larger than it was too.
0:36:19 And if you can create a listing that is exactly what somebody is looking for, they’re likely
0:36:19 to give you a shot.
0:36:21 So that’s marketplaces.
0:36:24 That’s the buy buttons component of the piggyback principle.
0:36:28 Make it easy for somebody to click your buy button by putting it on one of these pre-existing
0:36:30 marketplaces.
0:36:32 But we’re just getting started with the marketing stuff.
0:36:38 One of my all-time favorite piggyback principle strategies is intentionally going after strategic
0:36:39 referral partnerships.
0:36:45 This is how you can piggyback on someone else’s audience who serves a complimentary, but not
0:36:47 necessarily competitive niche.
0:36:53 And this can work in a lot of different ways from the handshake referral agreement to traditional
0:36:58 affiliate marketing where you pay a predefined commission or percentage for sending new customers
0:36:58 your way.
0:37:03 The question to ask is, who are your target customers already doing business with?
0:37:09 And this tactic dates back to some of the earliest episodes of the show with Ryan Cote describing
0:37:13 getting referral business for his SEO agency from a local web designer.
0:37:15 Hey, this website is built.
0:37:16 It’s only natural.
0:37:18 You’re going to need help with the marketing stuff, right?
0:37:20 So here’s my friend Ryan.
0:37:21 He can help you with that.
0:37:27 And Daniel DiPiazza, he described, this is like episode 35, like really low, really long
0:37:27 time ago episodes.
0:37:32 He described getting clients for his tutoring operation by targeting, I want to say high school
0:37:33 guidance counselors.
0:37:35 Now, this is 12 years ago.
0:37:37 Forgive me if my memory doesn’t serve.
0:37:40 But who are your target customers already doing business with?
0:37:42 Or who are they already paying attention to?
0:37:47 In episode 480, Johnny Robinson described it this way for his window washing service.
0:37:48 It can work online, it can work offline.
0:37:54 I was sitting in my car and I see a van pass by me and it’s a Hardee’s Windows.
0:37:56 It’s a window contractor, a big window contractor here in Orange County.
0:38:00 And I was like, huh, I wonder if after they install windows, they need someone to clean them.
0:38:01 I’ll just call.
0:38:01 And so I call them.
0:38:05 I’m like, hey, do you guys need window cleaning for the stuff you guys install?
0:38:07 And they’re like, no, we do that in-house.
0:38:08 And I was like, oh, damn.
0:38:13 So I thought I was like some mastermind sitting in my car that I was about to get so much work.
0:38:13 And then that happened.
0:38:17 And I was like, okay, who else could refer me to residential houses?
0:38:20 And so I’m like, oh, probably maid services.
0:38:24 I know maid services don’t carry the right equipment to clean residential windows, especially
0:38:26 two stories up on the exterior.
0:38:27 So let me call the maid services.
0:38:30 So I called the first three on Yelp, the top three.
0:38:33 And they’re like, yeah, I’ll pass you some window cleaning work.
0:38:34 Just give me a little kickback.
0:38:35 So it’s like, all right, perfect.
0:38:41 The first two I called of the three, we structured a deal where they would refer us and we’d give
0:38:42 them 15% of the job.
0:38:45 So that’s how we started to get our first residential work coming in.
0:38:46 That’s the key.
0:38:51 Not just finding one-off leads, but potential lead fountains that can become a steady source
0:38:52 of new business.
0:38:55 And it’s one of the most effective marketing strategies ever.
0:38:56 One of my all-time faves.
0:39:00 And that’s why it’s come up so many times over the past 10 plus years.
0:39:04 Who are your target customers already doing business with or paying attention to?
0:39:06 And let’s say your business is purely online.
0:39:12 We did an episode on this fast track strategy to grow in your email list and your sales with
0:39:15 Dustin Lean in episode 464.
0:39:17 We called it the partner workshop strategy.
0:39:19 And here’s how he described it.
0:39:23 So you kind of find yourself in this situation where you have an expertise and you can actually
0:39:27 help a lot of brands, but they don’t know you exist.
0:39:34 And so when going through that process of how do I grow, how do I find places to market that
0:39:38 will actually get me real clients that isn’t going to be a waste of time, this strategy of
0:39:44 just getting in front of someone else’s established audience that already has an audience full of people who are
0:39:50 potential clients for you and they have trust built with that other brand you’re partnering with.
0:39:57 So you can kind of borrow that trust and get it placed on you when they bring you in to teach a workshop to other people.
0:40:01 And it really helps establish trust with you a lot faster between you and their customers.
0:40:09 How this strategy works was established brands or creators bringing you in to teach an educational workshop.
0:40:11 Let’s say they’ve got 10,000 people on their email list.
0:40:16 They serve the same audience you want to reach, but in a different way, a complimentary way.
0:40:19 They invite those 10,000 people to your workshop.
0:40:22 And let’s say you get 200 people to sign up.
0:40:26 I don’t know what a typical conversion rate might be, but you just grew your list by 200 people in one day.
0:40:33 And you’ve jumped the line in their minds as the go-to person for whatever problem it is that you solve.
0:40:41 Dustin’s partner workshop strategy is super powerful and one I think that can be replicated in a ton of different niches and industries.
0:40:45 Again, highly recommend checking out that full episode to learn how we did it.
0:40:47 Episode 464.
0:40:55 Another unique way to apply the piggyback principle to your marketing is to find influencers in your space and get them to talk about your product.
0:41:00 One of my favorite examples comes from Lou Rice in her simple Strapsicle device.
0:41:04 This is a little silicone strap that lets you read your Kindle with one hand.
0:41:11 And this is how she described the influencer piggyback strategy that led to tens of thousands of dollars in sales.
0:41:15 But then I very quickly discovered BookTok on TikTok.
0:41:18 And that really changed the game for us as well.
0:41:19 Tell me about BookTok.
0:41:21 Yeah, I don’t know if you know BookTok.
0:41:31 I mean, BookTok is a huge subculture on TikTok of people who absolutely love, they have their book accounts, love their books, and then they love Kindles as well.
0:41:34 So I learned to have an affiliate strategy.
0:41:36 Go and find some micro-influencers.
0:41:38 Give them a free code.
0:41:39 That’s what I did.
0:41:41 I spent hours.
0:41:45 I researched all of these kind of, I wouldn’t even call them influencers.
0:41:48 They were just people that had 2,000 or 3,000 followers, maybe a bit more.
0:41:54 I reached out to them, told them a bit about our story, and offered them a sample to try.
0:41:58 And I knew they loved Kindles because I’d searched all the Kindle hashtags to find them.
0:41:58 Okay.
0:42:01 So I sent the product out.
0:42:02 Absolutely loved it.
0:42:05 And the bonus of that is I gave them a code to share with their followers.
0:42:10 So then they were actively promoting for me sometimes daily, weekly.
0:42:15 And then I was also gathering all this UGC content that I could then use for my own marketing.
0:42:22 So that actually, in the first three months of business, really helped grow the word about Stripe School.
0:42:23 Wow.
0:42:25 Were you like native to the TikTok platform?
0:42:27 Like it’s still a black box mystery to me.
0:42:29 Oh, is it?
0:42:30 Oh, yeah.
0:42:32 But you’re like, oh, shoot, I’m going to reach out to these micro-influencers.
0:42:33 I’m going to send them my stuff.
0:42:35 I’m going to get them an affiliate code.
0:42:39 It sounds like super premeditated, super intentional, like super strategic.
0:42:40 It wasn’t at all.
0:42:45 But I would say, Nick, you need to get on the TikTok.
0:42:46 Apparently so.
0:42:46 But it is.
0:42:47 Yeah.
0:42:51 I mean, the organic growth opportunities from TikTok are still so strong.
0:42:54 And I think, look, I was just on this.
0:42:55 I was still on that leave.
0:42:56 I had this time.
0:42:57 Archie was in daycare.
0:42:59 And I was like, I’m just going to run at this.
0:43:01 I’ve got two more months before I go back to work.
0:43:06 So doing this and then seeing the traction, this strategy brought, this tactic brought,
0:43:08 I was like, keep going, keep going.
0:43:13 I don’t know if you’ve heard the quote from, I think it was at Paul Graham, early on, do
0:43:14 the things that don’t scale.
0:43:16 And for me, that really stuck.
0:43:20 It’s like, spend the time, just reach out to people.
0:43:23 People with relatively small followings love to hear from you.
0:43:25 They probably haven’t had many brands reach out.
0:43:26 Yeah.
0:43:29 Especially in like the book category, it’s something, it would stand out.
0:43:31 He’s like, well, maybe you probably get lots of offers.
0:43:36 Well, read my next book from authors or something, but like, oh, a physical product that’s going
0:43:40 to make my reading more ergonomic or something like, okay, that definitely stands out from
0:43:41 the clutter there.
0:43:47 Again, that’s Lou Rice from episode 589, describing a micro-influencer strategy that’s been echoed
0:43:52 by other guests as well, including Mike Ettenberg and his sunglasses for first responders business.
0:43:57 He talked about sending out over a thousand pairs of sunglasses to first responder creators,
0:44:01 the people who were already speaking to the audience he was trying to serve.
0:44:06 The last piggyback principle strategy I want to share on the marketing side of things is related
0:44:08 to capturing search traffic.
0:44:13 And while SEO has been a complicated and challenging game of late, to say the least, it’s still quite
0:44:14 a bit simpler on YouTube.
0:44:18 I think that’s a big opportunity for side hustlers to create content that answers a specific question
0:44:21 that your target customer might type in.
0:44:25 If you’ve got the answer, you build up a lot of trust really fast in the eye of that viewer.
0:44:26 It doesn’t take a lot of views.
0:44:29 You don’t have to go viral to make a big dent in your business.
0:44:34 Here’s how Christy DeSilva from DeSilva Life described this strategy in episode 627.
0:44:42 We decided to launch a YouTube channel and that was a huge turning point for DL because YouTube
0:44:47 is obviously long form video content and people are extremely problem aware.
0:44:49 They’re like, how do I do this with ClickUp?
0:44:50 How do I do this with HoneyBook?
0:44:55 And so our first YouTube video that ever took off, that’s still one of our highest ranking,
0:44:59 is five ClickUp dashboards that will change your business.
0:45:04 It was cool to see like, because the first few videos were like, here’s how we can help you.
0:45:08 What’s the difference between a CRM and a project management tool?
0:45:13 Beginner’s Guide to HoneyBook and ClickUp, which those still do well as well.
0:45:18 But then the more specific we started to get with it, like, okay, these five ClickUp dashboards
0:45:24 that will change your business, even ones like specific ClickUp automations or how to create
0:45:27 a content calendar in ClickUp or things like that.
0:45:30 How to run your agency in HoneyBook.
0:45:35 Those are things that perform really well because people are searching for that exact thing.
0:45:36 Did you catch it?
0:45:40 Christy’s actually using two piggyback principle strategies at once here.
0:45:45 Yes, she’s targeting specific search phrases she knows she can answer, like how to create
0:45:46 a content calendar in ClickUp.
0:45:51 But she’s also piggybacking on the built-in user base of those software tools.
0:45:56 It can be a really effective strategy to become the go-to expert on a specific software.
0:46:02 And we’ve seen examples on the show of people doing that with FreshBooks, Shopify, Asana, Salesforce,
0:46:08 Microsoft Excel, Infusionsoft, and Optimized Press back in the day, and yes, HoneyBook and
0:46:09 ClickUp in Christy’s case.
0:46:14 If that’s a path that makes sense for your business, episode 627 with Christy is worth a listen.
0:46:20 Now, in my mind, it would be way harder to offer a generic project management optimization
0:46:21 service.
0:46:22 I don’t even know what that is.
0:46:26 But if you’re the expert in ClickUp, and that’s what you do all day long, and you’re providing
0:46:31 me helpful content for free, it makes it such an easier decision to hire you if that’s what
0:46:32 I need help with.
0:46:34 Piggyback, piggyback, piggyback.
0:46:34 There’s no shame in it.
0:46:36 It’s working smarter, not harder.
0:46:39 And it can help you in every stage of your business.
0:46:44 Whatever challenge you’re facing, how can I get a piggyback ride over this mountain?
0:46:45 The toddlers have got it figured out.
0:46:51 To recap, we covered how to apply the piggyback principle in three different phases of your
0:46:51 business.
0:46:57 The idea generation phase, the startup and creation phase, and then the marketing and growth phase.
0:47:01 The questions to keep in mind are, what would it look like if it were easy?
0:47:02 Remember Austin Church.
0:47:05 Pay attention to what wants to happen.
0:47:08 What trends are happening in the marketplace that I could take advantage of?
0:47:12 Or at the very least, is the idea that I’m considering at least increasing in demand in
0:47:13 the startup phase.
0:47:17 It feels like you’re starting from scratch, but I can almost guarantee there is a template
0:47:20 or playbook of some sort you can adapt to your own needs.
0:47:24 You can get ChatGPT to give you the big picture outline of what it’s going to take to build.
0:47:29 You might even be able to piggyback on the expertise of others in the form of freelance help, mentorship,
0:47:32 education, coaching, stuff like that.
0:47:36 And when it comes to growing your side hustle, ask who are your target customers already doing
0:47:38 business with or paying attention to?
0:47:43 How can you be of service to those business owners or creators in a win-win way?
0:47:47 What are the pre-existing niche marketplaces you can put your product or service up for
0:47:48 sale?
0:47:52 And can you answer people’s questions with evergreen content to showcase your expertise?
0:47:57 Armed with these strategies, you’re going to be an expert piggybacker in no time, and I’m
0:47:58 excited for you.
0:48:02 I know we referenced a lot of archive episodes in this one, and I’ll be sure to link all of
0:48:08 those up in the show notes for this episode at SideHustleNation.com slash piggyback.
0:48:12 While you’re there, you’ll be able to check out the full text summary of this episode.
0:48:16 And if you’re so inclined, build yourself your own personalized Side Hustle Show playlist.
0:48:19 Maybe e-commerce is your jam.
0:48:21 Maybe you’re a reseller at heart.
0:48:25 Maybe you’re destined to become a content creator or make money freelancing.
0:48:30 No matter which path is for you, I’ve got a short little quiz at hustle.show to help
0:48:32 you find out which direction to go.
0:48:37 It’ll give you 8 to 10 of our all-time greatest hits episode to listen to next based on your
0:48:38 answers.
0:48:43 Again, that’s at hustle.show for that short quiz to build your own custom curated Side Hustle
0:48:44 Show playlist.
0:48:47 Big thanks to all our amazing guests that made this episode possible.
0:48:51 Big thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:48:56 You can hit up SideHustleNation.com slash deals for all the latest offers from our sponsors
0:48:57 in one place.
0:48:59 Thank you for supporting the advertisers that support the show.
0:49:01 That is it for me.
0:49:03 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:49:06 If you find a value in the show, please help spread the word.
0:49:10 Fire off that text to a friend who could benefit from a little piggyback ride up that entrepreneurial
0:49:11 mountain.
0:49:14 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen.
0:49:17 And I’ll catch you in the next edition of the Side Hustle Show.