Learn. Share. Evolve…

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0:00:22 The riches are in the niches, but how do you find your niche?
0:00:24 Today, I want to give you a few exercises and frameworks
0:00:28 to identify a potential side hustle niche because there’s a lot of stress.
0:00:30 There’s a lot of discussion around this topic.
0:00:32 After all, you don’t want to pick the wrong thing.
0:00:36 You want to pick a place to play where you can thrive and where you’re excited to show up.
0:00:41 And that word play is important because when you look at it as a game,
0:00:42 first of all, it’s more fun.
0:00:48 And second of all, when it doesn’t work, when your first idea and your first idea might not,
0:00:50 you can tell yourself, well, it’s just a game.
0:00:55 So finding a place to play and experiment and positioning it as such in your mind
0:00:56 is the goal of this episode.
0:00:58 Now, here’s what’s rare.
0:01:02 And I say this as someone who’s published dozens of listicles of side hustle ideas
0:01:05 and ways to make money online, ways to make money offline,
0:01:07 the best side hustles for fill-in-the-blank persona.
0:01:08 But it’s rare.
0:01:12 It’s rare for a guest to say, well, I was Googling ways to make extra money,
0:01:16 as one does, and I scrolled down to number 17 on the list and said,
0:01:16 you know what?
0:01:18 That’s the one for me.
0:01:21 In fact, the only guest I can remember mentioning that specific path
0:01:24 was Vladimir Hernandez in episode 522.
0:01:27 He talked about coming across my big list of side hustle ideas
0:01:33 and then being intrigued by the idea of getting paid to sweep up parking lots.
0:01:36 If you’re totally idea agnostic, that can be a viable strategy.
0:01:39 And then he went on to build a really nice side hustle,
0:01:41 picking up litter from parking lots in New York.
0:01:44 Now, one exception to that would be, you know,
0:01:47 if you’re looking for kind of a plug and play, business in a box type of side hustles,
0:01:52 app-based side hustles, and absolutely drawing inspiration from previous guests as well.
0:01:57 What is more common is finding that sweet spot,
0:02:03 that intersection of interests, skills, curiosity, expertise, network, and market demand.
0:02:07 And maybe you’ve seen that ikigai, Venn diagram type of picture.
0:02:09 This is a Japanese word.
0:02:13 I’m probably butchering the pronunciation loosely translates to reason for being
0:02:15 or your purpose, your ikigai.
0:02:18 It’s the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at,
0:02:22 what you can get paid for, and then what the world needs or what the market wants.
0:02:26 For example, Brian Orr, he had experience in podcasting.
0:02:27 He had this day job.
0:02:32 He had this HVAC company and really enjoyed the training aspects of it,
0:02:35 like helping his team upskill and level up their learning.
0:02:37 So he created the HVAC School podcast,
0:02:40 which turned into a super successful side project.
0:02:44 Garrett Brown, who you’re going to meet later this month on the show,
0:02:47 he had a background in hospitality, in real estate,
0:02:52 and ended up creating a profitable glamping site outside of Houston,
0:02:54 a luxury camping site, short-term rental business.
0:02:57 Debbie Gartner, she knew SEO, she knew online marketing,
0:02:59 and she loved making games.
0:03:02 In fact, I want to say she said that was her answer in school to
0:03:04 the question, what do you want to be when you grow up?
0:03:05 I want to be a game maker.
0:03:09 So she started making little printable games and selling those on Etsy
0:03:14 to the tune of around $1,000 a week when we last spoke in episode 637.
0:03:17 But how do you begin to look for that sweet spot?
0:03:20 Individually, I think the prompts are fairly straightforward.
0:03:23 You want to take an inventory of your skills.
0:03:24 What have you gotten paid to do in the past?
0:03:26 Your hobbies.
0:03:28 What do you like to do if money were no object?
0:03:29 How would you spend your time?
0:03:30 What lights you up?
0:03:33 What do you never get tired of talking about?
0:03:35 What do other people ask you for help with?
0:03:38 What comes naturally to you that other people struggle with?
0:03:40 Or to flip it around.
0:03:42 I heard this one recently and I liked it.
0:03:45 It’s what do other people irrationally suck at?
0:03:46 Is that a fun way to flip it around?
0:03:48 Because that’s a sign that, well, maybe it comes easy to you.
0:03:51 And this is the origin story of the Side Hustle Show.
0:03:56 I’d already started a couple side businesses, including one that had turned into a full-time
0:03:57 business so I could quit my job.
0:04:01 Felt like I had a little bit of street cred in that area.
0:04:07 And I loved talking business ideas and deconstructing the marketing and monetization behind creative
0:04:07 ideas.
0:04:12 So a little bit of credibility, a little bit of expertise, and the curiosity to learn about
0:04:14 other kinds of side hustles.
0:04:16 Other people will ask you, well, what’s your superpower?
0:04:19 And that puts you a lot of stress on it.
0:04:23 It’s like, I don’t know, I can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound.
0:04:24 It’s like, what’s a superpower?
0:04:26 It puts a lot of pressure on you.
0:04:30 Another way to frame it would be, what’s an advantage that you have?
0:04:32 What’s maybe an unfair advantage that you have?
0:04:36 Because the truth is, nobody’s ever really starting from scratch.
0:04:40 We’re bringing our own history, our own perspectives, and oftentimes our own baggage to the table
0:04:42 in our side hustles.
0:04:44 But you’re not starting from scratch either.
0:04:48 And if nothing else, especially in this day and age, you’ve got the advantage of learning
0:04:49 from everybody who’s gone before you.
0:04:52 Like Newton said, we stand on the shoulders of giants, right?
0:04:54 But what’s an unfair advantage?
0:05:00 You might be thinking of an unfair advantage, some proprietary technology, like some top secret
0:05:05 formula, like the recipe for Coke, or your mind might go to performance enhancing drugs or
0:05:07 a rich uncle who left you a fortune.
0:05:14 Now, I think an unfair advantage is anything you can use to get started, stay started, and
0:05:14 connect with customers.
0:05:19 It’s that fuel, it’s that fuel that fires creation, connection, and contribution.
0:05:22 It could be a new technology or some invention of yours.
0:05:26 Being first to market, absolutely, it could be an unfair advantage.
0:05:30 It could be a personality trait, like persistence or curiosity.
0:05:36 But where the magic often happens is in combining two or more traits in a unique way.
0:05:40 And I first heard this described by Scott Adams, I want to say, on the Tim Ferriss Show.
0:05:42 He’s the creator of the comic strip Dilbert.
0:05:47 I don’t remember if he had a name for this business idea method, but the premise was to
0:05:50 look for the areas in your life where you’re better than average.
0:05:51 You don’t have to be the best in the world.
0:05:53 Don’t put that kind of pressure on yourself.
0:05:56 But say you’re in the upper half or maybe even the upper quartile.
0:05:58 And then you start to combine those areas.
0:06:02 In Scott’s case, he explained he was a better than average artist.
0:06:03 He enjoyed drawing.
0:06:04 He was pretty good at it.
0:06:07 And he thought he was a pretty funny guy, perhaps funnier than most.
0:06:13 So he combined those two advantages and probably also a boatload of persistence and dedication
0:06:18 to make a truly unfair advantage in turning Dilbert into one of the most successful comic strips
0:06:19 of all time.
0:06:23 So what are a few things that you’re better at than average?
0:06:25 How could you combine those?
0:06:28 And what can you do that other people can’t or won’t?
0:06:30 Or what are you better at than the average person?
0:06:32 So that’s the introspection piece.
0:06:34 That’s the know thyself part of it.
0:06:40 Where it gets a little trickier is in aligning those skills with some sometimes unrelated pains
0:06:44 and problems or industries or markets, because that’s where the money comes from.
0:06:49 For that, you got to start to look outwards and ask, what problems are people paying?
0:06:53 And that could be conversations with other people in your network.
0:06:55 It could be conversations with other business owners.
0:07:01 Dane Maxwell had his famous idea extraction types of questions where you would be asking,
0:07:05 well, what’s the biggest challenge facing your industry over the next five years?
0:07:08 What’s an expensive problem that you’re dealing with?
0:07:11 What’s a typical day look like for you?
0:07:15 What’s the most frustrating or time-consuming part of your business, right?
0:07:17 You’re trying to uncover these expensive pains of problems.
0:07:23 And even if you don’t know the solution right away, it’s just if you can find the problem,
0:07:25 you can figure out how to solve it.
0:07:26 And that’s where the money is.
0:07:29 You could also use my what sucks exercise.
0:07:34 This could be as simple as a notes app on your phone, where you’re just making a note of everything
0:07:35 that sucks in your life day to day.
0:07:41 Things that your spouse, co-workers, partners, neighbors, kids, things that people complain to
0:07:42 you about, right?
0:07:44 Normally, you’re trying to be a little more optimistic.
0:07:47 But you got to put your pessimist hat and just pay attention to it.
0:07:53 Kind of like a be a be a magnet for negativity for a week or two and see what sucks in other
0:07:54 people’s lives.
0:07:58 Because on the other side of sucks, there might be some some dollars there as well.
0:08:04 So and then looking also at the pains and problems that you’ve overcome in your own life.
0:08:07 Another methodology from Tim Ferriss is to look at your own credit card statement.
0:08:10 What’s taken up a big chunk of your expenses?
0:08:12 Could you create an alternative there?
0:08:18 And it doesn’t necessarily need to be something completely new and novel, never before seen.
0:08:23 After all, it’s something you’ve already validated by spending your own money on it as a solution.
0:08:26 If you’re looking at that credit card statement idea as a methodology.
0:08:32 Now, you could also take your answers and your constraints and prompt chat GPT at this point
0:08:33 for suggestions.
0:08:37 For example, I might type in and obviously the more detail you give it, the better.
0:08:41 But, you know, for the sake of argument, hey, I’m looking for some side hustle suggestions.
0:08:42 I like skiing.
0:08:43 I like college football.
0:08:46 I’ve got two young kids at home and want to make sure I’m present with them on the weekends.
0:08:51 I have experience in content marketing, podcasting and in the automotive industry.
0:08:54 I have a hard time saying I’m an expert in anything.
0:08:58 But sometimes people ask me for advice on email marketing and travel hacks.
0:09:02 And given just that simple prompt, here’s what Chatty came back with.
0:09:07 They recommended an automotive insider niche content business blog, YouTube channel, newsletter
0:09:11 on car buying tricks and, you know, how to buy a used car without getting screwed, that
0:09:12 kind of stuff.
0:09:15 They recommended a weekend warrior travel hacks newsletter.
0:09:16 I really kind of like this one.
0:09:20 How to maximize school breaks and three-day weekends for affordable travel.
0:09:25 It recommended another idea as an email marketing consultant for niche creators.
0:09:30 It recommended a college football road trip guide or podcast, which could be an interesting
0:09:34 one because we try and do an away game every year with a group of college friends.
0:09:36 This year is going to be Madison, Wisconsin.
0:09:41 The point is these probably aren’t going to be perfect right out of the gate, but they’re a
0:09:43 pretty good brainstorming starting point.
0:09:47 I think you could probably do something similar after you complete these kind of know thyself
0:09:48 type of questions.
0:09:52 And the more details you can feed into the AI prompt, the better these results are going
0:09:53 to be.
0:09:54 And then you can start the conversation, go back and forth.
0:09:56 Hey, well, how would you get your first customers for that?
0:09:58 Or let’s flesh this out a little bit more.
0:09:59 What does that really look like?
0:10:04 Are you looking for a flexible income stream and one with real career potential?
0:10:08 I’m excited to partner with Intuit for this episode because they’re actively recruiting
0:10:13 Side Hustle Show listeners to join their world-class network of tax and bookkeeping experts.
0:10:17 You know Intuit as the maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks, and maybe you’re one of the 100
0:10:19 million people who use those products yourself.
0:10:24 I know TurboTax has made a few of my Aprils a little bit easier, but as an Intuit expert,
0:10:28 you can work virtually on a flexible schedule and get the support you need from an experienced
0:10:29 and credentialed team.
0:10:35 Plus, you’ll get free access to Intuit Academy, their free self-paced training program where
0:10:39 you can build your confidence in tax prep and bookkeeping skills to start or grow your career.
0:10:43 Whether you’re looking to grow a side hustle or switch things up full-time, Intuit helps
0:10:46 you chart your own path and connect with customers in meaningful ways.
0:10:48 Sound like your next move?
0:10:52 Head to intuit.com slash expert to learn more or apply now.
0:10:58 That’s intuit.com slash expert, I-N-T-U-I-T dot com slash expert.
0:11:03 So, so far we’ve been doing some soul-searching and taking inventory of our skills and perceived
0:11:08 areas of expertise, but now we need to pair that up with a pain or problem because that’s
0:11:09 what people spend money on.
0:11:10 Spend money on painkillers.
0:11:11 Make this problem go away.
0:11:16 Here’s how Noah Kagan described part of his idea-generating process in episode 237.
0:11:18 But personally, solve your own problems.
0:11:19 It’s more interesting and more sustainable.
0:11:23 The other thing, this is a common mistake I’ve seen, Nick, is that, well, there’s someone else
0:11:27 is doing it, you know, like, oh, this other guy’s already got this or girl’s got this.
0:11:30 And I’m like, how many Mexican restaurants are in your town?
0:11:30 Right.
0:11:31 There’s a lot.
0:11:33 And I’m sure more than one of them makes a profit.
0:11:37 So if there’s someone else doing it and you’re not using them, then there’s probably some opportunity
0:11:38 for you.
0:11:41 What would you say to the person that says, well, I don’t know what my strengths are?
0:11:45 So two things that I would recommend, and let’s take some of your ideas and we can talk
0:11:47 about how to validate them because I think that’s always helpful for people who are like, well,
0:11:48 how would I actually start as a business?
0:11:49 So let’s come back to that afterwards.
0:11:53 If you don’t know what your strengths are, the two things that I have found, and I’m only
0:11:56 telling you what’s worked for me, well, I’ll do two and a half.
0:11:59 But number one is I just think about the last six months.
0:12:02 What have I done that I felt the best working on?
0:12:03 What have I done?
0:12:07 So when you said, hey, I would work for free on my podcast because I just enjoy it.
0:12:09 That is a strength.
0:12:10 That’s a strength.
0:12:14 A strength is something that you have done that you would basically work for free or
0:12:18 you just feel in the zone, meaning you wake up early, you stay up late, you’re just excited
0:12:19 to be doing it.
0:12:23 So having conversations like this, it’s exciting for me because I get new ideas, I get inspired,
0:12:24 I get energy.
0:12:26 And it’s like, oh, cool, that’s what a podcast is.
0:12:27 Let me do more of that.
0:12:29 And then promoting things.
0:12:31 I’m like, oh, I love promoting things on my email list.
0:12:32 All right, let me do more of that.
0:12:36 So think about, go make a list of everything you’ve done in the past six months that you really
0:12:36 enjoy doing.
0:12:37 Make that list.
0:12:40 A second thing that you can do if you don’t know your strength is think about someone
0:12:44 who you like, someone who knows you really well, and ask them via text right now.
0:12:45 And I’ve done this before.
0:12:49 And it’s generally like, yeah, you seem really good at marketing.
0:12:51 I’m like, all right, why don’t I just do more marketing?
0:12:52 So just text them right now.
0:12:54 Hey, I’m trying to figure out what I want to work on next.
0:12:55 This is an even better one.
0:12:57 I’ll even make it even next level for people out there.
0:12:59 Text someone that knows you.
0:13:01 Hey, if I were to start a business, what kind of business do you think I should start?
0:13:05 And they’ll actually tell you a business that you’re like, damn, yeah, I guess I should
0:13:05 start that.
0:13:07 So text a friend.
0:13:11 Anyone that knows you well, it can’t be some random like, hey, Jimbo, what do you think I
0:13:11 do?
0:13:12 It’s like, I don’t know, work at Walmart.
0:13:17 But the point being is like your friends actually have a pretty interesting and if they’re I think
0:13:19 most good friends have a good perspective about what you probably should be doing.
0:13:23 And if you don’t have any good friends that do that, go join an online group, go get involved
0:13:27 in Side Hustle Nation, whatever it is, and you can find someone there that can start to
0:13:29 know you better, like maybe set up a weekly call.
0:13:33 But that person then can help reflect from an outside opinion what that is.
0:13:35 Lastly, it could be therapy.
0:13:37 I’ve done that numerous times over the past 10 years.
0:13:42 You know, I go for a year off and on and I definitely find having kind of like a third
0:13:47 party person reflect on what I say helpful to help me understand what I want and the things
0:13:47 I like to do.
0:13:53 What I love about this clip is the super obvious in hindsight, but we still kind of need to
0:13:56 hear it, call out of how many Mexican restaurants are in your town.
0:14:01 It doesn’t take a never before seen business idea to make a successful side hustle.
0:14:05 There’s room for multiple players, especially if you can get specific on who you serve and
0:14:10 how you do it differently, because if you can become a market of one, even if it’s just
0:14:13 in the minds of your customers, that’s a really powerful place to be.
0:14:15 Here’s John Lee Dumas to explain.
0:14:18 Is there such thing as being too niche?
0:14:21 Like, I’ve seen some successful podcasts.
0:14:25 We had a guest on recently who had like a laundromat podcast, like how to run a laundromat
0:14:26 business.
0:14:28 And he was like, it’s done surprisingly well.
0:14:30 And I said, well, why do you say surprisingly?
0:14:32 And he’s like, because it’s a laundromat podcast.
0:14:37 But I’m curious, have you seen anything where it’s like, I don’t know if that’s a big enough
0:14:38 market to try and serve?
0:14:39 It is impossible.
0:14:42 And I mean, impossible to be too niche.
0:14:45 People always go the other way because they’re scared.
0:14:46 They’re fearful.
0:14:48 They have their own self-doubts.
0:14:50 And they think, I just need to be able to serve everybody.
0:14:51 I want to resonate with everybody.
0:14:55 I want to just create a podcast that just inspires other people, to inspire other people, to inspire
0:14:56 other people.
0:15:02 And that fails because that is a weak, pale imitation of other successful podcasts that
0:15:04 are out there that are actually doing something specific.
0:15:07 And that’s why people lose.
0:15:12 Why people win is because they say, I’m going to create the best solution to a real problem.
0:15:16 I flippin’ love that laundromat podcast idea because guess what?
0:15:21 He is the best laundromat podcast in the world.
0:15:22 He’s also the worst.
0:15:24 He’s the only.
0:15:28 And that’s why you win in this world, because you become the best.
0:15:33 However that is, if that takes you being the only to be the best, that’s giving you a chance
0:15:38 to win because people will beat a path to your doorstep if you’re number one.
0:15:42 If you’re number two, if you’re number 10, if you’re number 200, you will lose.
0:15:44 Yeah, where can you be the only?
0:15:46 That was a line that stood out to me from the book.
0:15:52 It was like, hey, when you started Yo Fire, I was the best daily interview podcast for entrepreneurs.
0:15:54 I was the worst daily interview podcast for entrepreneurs.
0:15:57 I was the only, and that’s an interesting place to play.
0:16:03 Now, it makes for a great soundbite, but obviously at a certain point, there probably is such
0:16:05 thing as being too niche, where the market is just too small.
0:16:10 But the sentiment, I do agree with, and that’s essentially to create your own category.
0:16:15 If you remember the book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, I think was the title.
0:16:17 I think they call this the law of the category.
0:16:20 You want to own it, and if you can’t be first, be different in some way.
0:16:22 Create your own category.
0:16:27 One of my favorite examples of this is April Whitney, who runs a fitness business for petite
0:16:27 women.
0:16:30 It’s called Petite Power now, P-W-R.
0:16:34 Specifically, fitness and nutrition for women 5’4 and shorter.
0:16:38 Purposely excluding a huge segment of the population.
0:16:38 Nope.
0:16:39 Those are my people.
0:16:44 It’s not that petite women were even necessarily seeking out this type of information and training,
0:16:48 but when they came across April on social media, it resonates like nothing else because she’s
0:16:50 speaking exactly to them.
0:16:51 Best.
0:16:51 Worst.
0:16:52 Only.
0:16:58 In that episode with JLD, I shared the on-air conclusion that I unintentionally followed that
0:17:03 best-worst-only advice with pretty much all of my most successful side hustles.
0:17:08 When I started my comparison shopping site for footwear, best game in town, only game in town,
0:17:09 worst game in town, right?
0:17:10 Best, worst only.
0:17:12 Same thing with my virtual assistant directory.
0:17:16 It was the first review platform for those types of businesses.
0:17:19 First directory where you’re trying to bring them all under one roof.
0:17:20 Best, worst only.
0:17:25 And same thing with Side Hustle Nation, the first podcast dedicated to part-time entrepreneurship.
0:17:31 So, and recently you met Hannah Morgan from Heron House Management in a recent episode.
0:17:33 Fully remote house management service.
0:17:38 So rather than start a general project management service, rather than start even a general virtual
0:17:41 assistant service, Hannah went niche.
0:17:46 And she spoke to a pain point that she knew other moms and parents were experiencing.
0:17:51 And part of what separates Heron from a general virtual assistant service is that unique positioning.
0:17:56 Hey, busy parents, let us handle your to-do list and we’ll carry your mental load.
0:18:00 So like Noah said, if somebody else is already doing the thing you want to do, don’t let that
0:18:01 discourage you.
0:18:06 But if you can find a way to make it your own through your own branding and positioning or
0:18:10 customer targeting, that’s how you’re going to create your own category.
0:18:15 Now, hopefully these exercises have uncovered a bunch of potential side hustle ideas and options
0:18:16 for you.
0:18:18 Options are great, but options don’t pay the bills.
0:18:19 You got to pick one.
0:18:20 You got to take action.
0:18:25 That’s why next week I’ll share 10 questions to help you narrow down your focus and objectively
0:18:27 pick the best one.
0:18:27 That’s right.
0:18:29 Backed up by math.
0:18:33 Just hit the follow button in your podcast app and it’ll be automatically added to your
0:18:35 device when it’s released.
0:18:38 Big thanks to our sponsor, Intuit, for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:18:43 Intuit, the maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks, is inviting Side Hustle Show listeners to join
0:18:46 its world-class network of tax and bookkeeping experts.
0:18:51 To learn more or apply now, head on over to intuit.com slash expert.
0:18:54 Again, that’s intuit.com slash expert.
0:18:55 That’s it for me.
0:18:57 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:19:00 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen.
0:19:02 And I’ll catch you in the next edition of the Side Hustle Show.