0:00:03 Here are 30 ways to make extra money for the holidays.
0:00:07 The average American spends close to $1,000 on Christmas gifts,
0:00:10 and that probably doesn’t even include any holiday related travel,
0:00:13 any extra food expenses, which is why I wanted to do an episode of Ways
0:00:15 to Make Extra Money for the Holidays.
0:00:19 What are some of the relatively simple, low startup costs?
0:00:23 Fast to see results, types of side hustles to help soften the blow
0:00:25 of that upcoming bump in your budget.
0:00:28 And to help me out with these is someone who took her side hustle
0:00:31 into a full-time business and knows a thing or two about budgeting
0:00:36 as well from inspiredbudget.com and the Inspired Budget podcast,
0:00:38 Alison Bagger. Welcome to The Side Hustle Show.
0:00:39 Thanks for having me, Nick.
0:00:42 I’m excited to talk about these 30 ways.
0:00:45 And I have to say, I love the idea of presenting people with ways
0:00:50 that you’re not signing up for this full-time commitment for months
0:00:51 and months and months on end.
0:00:54 A lot of these you can do once or twice, get some cash in the bank
0:00:57 and spend money on what you want and then call it a day.
0:01:00 That’s right. I don’t know if you’ll find podcasting on this list
0:01:02 because there’s always another Thursday coming around.
0:01:05 You never know what you’re committed to, what you signed up for this.
0:01:08 But now you’ve got over a million downloads on the Inspired Budget Show.
0:01:11 Encourage people to check that out after you’re done with this episode.
0:01:13 But this is one of my favorite formats because we’re just going,
0:01:16 we’re going to throw out a bunch of different money-making ideas.
0:01:18 I know I promised 30 at top of the show.
0:01:21 We will see how many we end up with, might be more, might be less.
0:01:24 That’s the peril of recording a live intro without knowing what’s going to happen next.
0:01:28 But I want to start off with one that has been fairly consistent for me
0:01:31 to the tune of a few hundred dollars a year.
0:01:34 And that’s this paid market research side hustle.
0:01:39 I just get a kick out of doing these online focus groups or even one-on-one interviews.
0:01:41 Hey, would you demo this new software for us?
0:01:43 Tell us what you think about it.
0:01:45 I’ve got a whole list of different companies
0:01:48 that you could sign up for to facilitate this type of thing.
0:01:51 We talked about a few of them before, like Recruit and Field.
0:01:55 Maven is a new one for me with a more business-to-business focus,
0:01:58 product report card, user interviews, respondent.
0:02:01 I’ll link up all those, link up the big list that I have.
0:02:03 But do you ever participate in this kind of thing?
0:02:06 I don’t know, I just get a kick because it’s usually 50 to 100,
0:02:10 150 bucks an hour sometimes just for telling your opinion about stuff.
0:02:13 I have never personally participated in it, but it does interest me.
0:02:16 And I like the idea that I don’t have to go anywhere to do it, right?
0:02:19 Like, that’s my big thing as a mom, as a busy person.
0:02:22 I don’t necessarily want to…
0:02:23 Do you have to go anywhere to do it?
0:02:25 Most of these nowadays are remote.
0:02:28 When I first started doing it, it was in person.
0:02:31 There was this woman in the parking lot of my condo in Atlanta.
0:02:34 She comes up to me after work one day, “Do you like to drink beer?”
0:02:36 Like, “Oh, okay, tell me more.
0:02:39 Do you have any other white friends that like to drink beer?”
0:02:41 Like, “I’m sure I could recruit some friends.”
0:02:42 Oh, my gosh.
0:02:45 And then they paid us 70 bucks to go taste this thing.
0:02:47 But we had to go in person to do that.
0:02:49 And that was one of the first paid market risks.
0:02:50 I was like, “This is pretty cool.”
0:02:54 Yeah, getting paid to hang out with your friends and drink hopefully good beer.
0:02:55 Not bad.
0:02:57 Yeah, not bad at all.
0:02:59 You don’t give your feedback on that stuff.
0:03:00 But that’s one way to do it.
0:03:02 The challenge is it’s not going to be…
0:03:06 Not necessarily something that you can bank on happening every week or every month.
0:03:09 So you kind of have to cast your screener surveys out there
0:03:11 and hopefully get picked once or twice.
0:03:13 But generally a few hundred bucks a year for that,
0:03:16 which helps offset some holiday gift cost.
0:03:16 Exactly.
0:03:19 Can I throw one out that I really like?
0:03:19 Go for it.
0:03:20 Okay.
0:03:24 So number five on the list here is Christmas light installation.
0:03:27 And I say this because I’m big on Christmas lights at our house.
0:03:30 I’m also big on Halloween decorations, but not any other holidays.
0:03:35 But anyway, my husband, thankfully, is equipped to get on a ladder
0:03:38 and go hang Christmas lights on our two-story house,
0:03:40 which can be a little terrifying.
0:03:42 But my friend down the street is not.
0:03:47 And she actually paid my husband to hang lights one day.
0:03:48 And I was like, no, don’t do it.
0:03:49 But she ended up giving us a gift card.
0:03:54 And I was like, this is a great option for people who want to go out and do that,
0:03:55 have a ladder.
0:03:56 People usually buy the lights.
0:03:57 They provide the lights themselves.
0:04:00 And you just go up there, hang them, come back after Christmas.
0:04:01 Take them down.
0:04:03 You can get a couple hundred bucks that way for sure.
0:04:03 Yeah.
0:04:04 I was looking at…
0:04:07 Because we have kind of a high peak on our house.
0:04:09 Not the world’s fanciest house,
0:04:12 but just has like a point where my ladder would not reach.
0:04:14 And so I was like, well, what would it cost to get somebody?
0:04:16 I think it would look cool to have lights up there.
0:04:18 And it was hundreds of dollars.
0:04:21 But I remember the tagline on this person’s site,
0:04:23 you know, they’re standing out, drenched in rain.
0:04:27 It was a great bit of marketing because it’s like the Northwest and it’s wet and cold.
0:04:31 He’s like, you really want to be up on the ladder, up on your roof doing this?
0:04:32 I didn’t think so.
0:04:33 Higher V instead.
0:04:35 And I was like, that’s pretty good marketing right there.
0:04:37 So Christmas light installation, absolutely.
0:04:40 A holiday themed side hustle.
0:04:42 What else has stood out to you here?
0:04:44 I also really liked pet sitting.
0:04:47 I know that you mentioned Rover.com.
0:04:49 I have a dog and a cat.
0:04:52 We do travel a lot, not just for the holidays,
0:04:54 but just other times during the year.
0:05:01 And it is very expensive to board a dog at a facility in a kennel.
0:05:02 They could get sick.
0:05:06 I don’t always know if they are getting enough energy out.
0:05:09 So having a pet sitter come to my house would be amazing
0:05:12 to be able to check on my cats, walk my dog, feed him all the things.
0:05:15 I think that’s a really great way for anyone who likes animals,
0:05:17 but not necessarily people.
0:05:21 You don’t have to like people to do it, which is a plus for some people.
0:05:24 It’s really great way to earn extra cash.
0:05:29 We traveled last year over Thanksgiving and had a friend of a friend watch our dog.
0:05:32 And I forget what she charged, but it was not inexpensive.
0:05:35 It was like 50 to 70 bucks a night, I want to say.
0:05:39 And for a six night trip or five night trip, however long we were gone,
0:05:41 it was like, oh, it was noticeable.
0:05:41 It was significant.
0:05:43 So it was like a great deal for her.
0:05:48 She was hanging out at home, doing her thing, hanging out with the dog and making some money.
0:05:49 Exactly.
0:05:52 And people are going to be traveling for Thanksgiving.
0:05:54 People are going to be traveling for Christmas.
0:05:58 Even just one night away, I don’t want to board my dog for a night.
0:06:00 So having someone that can either stay at my house
0:06:02 or even just check in in the morning and evening.
0:06:07 Super easy way to happily pay someone $50 a day to do that.
0:06:08 Absolutely.
0:06:09 Rover.com is worth a look.
0:06:12 This is probably the biggest pet sitting site out there.
0:06:13 Wag is another one.
0:06:17 Meowtel is on the cat sitting side, if you don’t want to deal with dogs at all.
0:06:21 Some different marketplaces out there that we can link up in the show notes for you.
0:06:24 I want to tell you the story of our neighbor was having this garage sale.
0:06:28 So another one on our list is this product flipping or reselling side hustle,
0:06:32 where your startup costs are just limited to whatever inventory risk you’re comfortable making.
0:06:34 What deals can you find?
0:06:36 And we just did this whole episode with Rob, the flea market flipper,
0:06:41 and how he finds these crazy unique items you could sell for $1,000 profit or more.
0:06:47 But this guy, our neighbor, had this 1980s style Team USA Olympics starter jacket.
0:06:51 And it was just amazingly retro vintage.
0:06:56 Had this crazy cool, really awkwardly aggressive bald eagle on the back of it.
0:07:01 And so I go home and naturally like, what is this thing going for on eBay?
0:07:02 And it’s like, oh, we don’t 100 bucks.
0:07:05 And then by the time I went back to see what he wanted for it,
0:07:07 somebody else had taken it.
0:07:10 It was like, oh, shoot, that would have been an easy thing to go and flip.
0:07:14 Because I think he was, everything must go like $5, $5 bin type of thing.
0:07:17 But that’s definitely one that that could be on your list.
0:07:19 If you like that treasure hunt type of side hustle.
0:07:20 Hmm.
0:07:22 Yeah, I’m not a big treasure hunt person.
0:07:23 I don’t know.
0:07:24 There’s something about like my time.
0:07:27 I don’t want to, maybe I’ve just gotten lazy and old age.
0:07:31 Like I’m like, I don’t, I don’t want to necessarily like be out and about running
0:07:33 around doing treasure hunting.
0:07:37 And I feel like my laziness has shown because one of the things on the list
0:07:39 you have here is tutoring.
0:07:42 And Nick, I have to tell you, I’m a former teacher.
0:07:42 Okay.
0:07:49 I taught for 10 years and I hire someone to come in my home every single week
0:07:52 and tutor my son in seventh grade math.
0:07:54 It’s not that I can’t do it.
0:07:59 It’s just that there is a natural battle between parents and children.
0:08:01 I like, I could say it.
0:08:05 And then the guy who comes into tutor him can say it and it clicks for my son.
0:08:08 I pay him a dollar a minute.
0:08:13 So he comes every single week and I pay him cash $60 a week.
0:08:19 And I cannot tell you knowing all of these other parents in the area, people want tutors.
0:08:24 It’s a really great way for anyone who is a teacher or even if you’re not a teacher,
0:08:27 working with some of the younger students, even with just reading.
0:08:30 It’s a really easy way for you to go into someone’s home tutor.
0:08:34 If you don’t want to go into their home, you can meet them at the local library.
0:08:37 So you have some groups listed here.
0:08:38 Wise aunt.
0:08:43 But honestly, there’s so many different online tutoring services, but even just getting out
0:08:47 in your community and talking to people and just even like if you have children in school,
0:08:49 letting those teachers know, hey,
0:08:50 I’m open for tutoring.
0:08:53 It doesn’t have to be a super consistent thing if you don’t want it to be.
0:08:57 But as a parent, I will happily pay for tutoring for my child.
0:09:00 If it means I don’t have this big back and forth argument.
0:09:02 This is a good time of year to get into it too.
0:09:05 Those first report cards have come home and like the wake up call like,
0:09:07 oh, maybe we need a little bit of help.
0:09:07 Yes.
0:09:10 My son was asking us on a hike the other day, well,
0:09:12 why can’t we do homeschool with their friends in the neighborhood or homeschool?
0:09:15 And I was like, well, you know, you need two ingredients to homeschool.
0:09:18 You need, you know, at least one parent that’s not working and you need a kid.
0:09:21 There’s willing to listen to instruction from that parent.
0:09:23 And it’s like, I don’t think we have either right now.
0:09:26 You know, we’ve been telling you to put periods at the end of your sentences for years.
0:09:30 And it’s still like, no, we’re just world’s longest sentence.
0:09:33 But that’s actually my brother’s full time business is a tutor.
0:09:36 And so he’s built this book of business up and does really well.
0:09:39 I think he’s got, you know, 30 something students a week that he sees.
0:09:41 It’s got his schedule filled up.
0:09:46 So it can definitely be either a side hustle or something that can parlay into a full time business.
0:09:51 Now, the next one that I’ve got for you is one that you got to promise to use responsibly.
0:09:54 But if you’re going to be spending money over the holidays anyways,
0:09:58 my take is you might as well get some free money from a bank for doing it.
0:10:01 And what I’m talking about is, you know, credit card sign up bonuses.
0:10:06 I don’t think I’m allowed to name, you know, specific offers because they change all the time.
0:10:09 But take a look at what sign up bonuses might be available.
0:10:13 It’s like, hey, if you’re going to spend 500 bucks, some cards will give you $200 cash back.
0:10:14 To me, that’s a no-brainer.
0:10:17 It’s like, you know, it’s something that’s easy to do.
0:10:19 And then there’s travel rewards cards with even more.
0:10:20 Sometimes they have higher minimum spends.
0:10:22 But if you know you’re going to spend the money anyways,
0:10:25 you might as well get some of that free cash back.
0:10:28 And the holidays are a good time to do it because expenses rise.
0:10:30 And it’s easier to hit those minimum spend requirements.
0:10:34 Yes. I’ve actually known someone that uses her credit card responsibly, right?
0:10:36 Keyword, responsibly all year long.
0:10:40 And then uses those points for cash back for Christmas gifts.
0:10:44 Because she knows that, okay, all year long, I’m going to use it.
0:10:47 And this is essentially my Christmas budget, which works for her.
0:10:51 So I’m also a really big fan of credit card sign-on bonuses.
0:10:56 I also love, I’m looking for it on your list, maximizing cash back.
0:11:00 I’m a big fan of fetch rewards.
0:11:04 And Rakuten, my husband, I’ve been very lucky.
0:11:07 He kindly does the grocery shopping in our house.
0:11:11 When the pandemic hit, he said, okay, I’m going to take over this
0:11:14 responsibility and wipe the groceries.
0:11:15 And he just has never stopped.
0:11:19 He continues to go and every single time he gets back, he hands me that receipt.
0:11:24 I scan the receipt with my Fetch app and build up those points
0:11:26 to get back for gift cards.
0:11:28 And if this is something that you’re looking to do,
0:11:31 you can actually use those gift cards to buy gifts.
0:11:34 Or heck, give those gift cards away as gifts themselves,
0:11:37 which will save you money on your Christmas spending.
0:11:38 Yeah, I’ve got a bunch of these.
0:11:43 And it seems silly because each receipt is worth like one to 10 cents.
0:11:44 I mean, sometimes a little bit more.
0:11:46 If you hit the right product, I guess some of them on Ibotta,
0:11:49 if you buy the right thing, it’s like the five bucks or more.
0:11:51 Just like, shoot, for taking a picture of your receipt, cool.
0:11:53 Who cares if I bought Spindrift and peanut butter?
0:11:57 Like, what they’re doing with my data, it doesn’t really bother me.
0:11:59 But receipt hog is one.
0:12:03 Fetch, like you mentioned, Ibotta, you’ve got a whole list of these.
0:12:05 It’s easy, free money type of thing.
0:12:07 And absolutely take advantage of that.
0:12:08 We have another one.
0:12:12 We hope to have more details on this later this month, actually.
0:12:15 That’s a gift wrapping service and sometimes a mobile gift wrapping service.
0:12:18 Because, you know, part one, the pain of Christmas is, you know,
0:12:20 coming up with gift ideas or doing the shopping and everything.
0:12:22 And then the second part of the pain hits when you’re like,
0:12:24 “Grab, now I got to wrap all this stuff.”
0:12:27 So maybe there’s an opportunity to take that pain away
0:12:30 and provide that service for other people or for corporate clients
0:12:33 who are doing a gifting for their customers or for their employees.
0:12:35 Ooh, that’s brilliant, the corporate client.
0:12:38 It’s like, you go all in on one corporation, one company,
0:12:40 that’s going to pay you big money to wrap everything.
0:12:43 They’ll probably give you the wrapping paper
0:12:45 or give you money for the wrapping paper.
0:12:47 I did this as a teenager.
0:12:48 Oh, yeah.
0:12:52 I’m one of those weird people that enjoys wrapping gifts every holiday season.
0:12:54 What I do is I lock myself in my bedroom.
0:12:57 I put on some sort of like cheesy hallmark movie.
0:12:59 I drink wine and I wrap the presents.
0:13:02 It’s like a, I don’t know, it’s a special time for myself.
0:13:03 I look forward to it every year.
0:13:06 But I have family members who do not enjoy it
0:13:09 and literally would pay me money years and years and years ago
0:13:11 to wrap their presents.
0:13:13 So I was a teenager and not drinking wine,
0:13:16 but the entire process was still the same minus the alcohol.
0:13:20 And there are some people out there that really do love this,
0:13:22 which is crazy to other people.
0:13:24 But when life is busy,
0:13:27 sometimes you’re willing to pay to have someone do those things.
0:13:30 And you could be the person that gets the benefit of that.
0:13:30 Yeah, absolutely.
0:13:33 That sounds like when we’re addressing the Christmas cards,
0:13:36 we’ll have the kids like draw something Christmasy on the envelope.
0:13:37 Eat a mint M&M.
0:13:38 Okay, do the next one.
0:13:39 Address the card.
0:13:39 Eat a mint M&M.
0:13:40 Go do the next one.
0:13:42 And it’s a lot of fun.
0:13:44 You kind of a family activity related to that.
0:13:48 We’ve got more money making ideas with Allison coming right up after this,
0:13:51 including my wife’s holiday side hustle.
0:13:54 And we are right back with that and more in just a minute.
0:13:58 We’re at our local street fair last month.
0:14:01 And my kids are like magnets to any of these vendor booths
0:14:04 that have a prize wheel or a bowl of candy.
0:14:08 And one of those booths happens to be one of the big name brand wireless carriers.
0:14:12 So the woman asks me as the kids are collecting their little trinket prize,
0:14:14 are you a customer of ours?
0:14:18 And I have to say, no, I’m actually on Mint Mobile and have been for a long time.
0:14:21 So she asks, well, how much do you pay?
0:14:24 And so I tell her and she says, yeah, I can’t match that,
0:14:27 which is why I’m excited to partner with Mint Mobile for this episode.
0:14:30 Because friends don’t let friends overpay for wireless.
0:14:34 Mint Mobile is just 15 bucks a month when you purchase a three month plan.
0:14:38 And all plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text
0:14:42 delivered on the nation’s largest 5G network.
0:14:44 You can use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan
0:14:47 and bring your own phone number along with all your existing contacts.
0:14:51 To get this new customer offer and your new three month premium wireless plan
0:14:56 for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:14:59 That’s mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:15:05 Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:15:09 $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month.
0:15:11 New customers on first three month plan only.
0:15:15 Speeds slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan.
0:15:18 Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply.
0:15:20 See Mint Mobile for details.
0:15:24 Being an entrepreneur and being able to work remotely definitely has its perks.
0:15:28 I’ve recorded podcasts everywhere from Vietnam to Italy.
0:15:30 Drafted newsletters from Japan.
0:15:32 Hosted mastermind meetings from Spain.
0:15:35 Ended up being the middle of the night to get to US business hours.
0:15:38 And outlined courses in Mexico.
0:15:41 The common thread of all of these trips though is Airbnb.
0:15:45 We love being able to get exactly what we’re looking for in a place to stay
0:15:50 and have a more local experience than staying in some giant hotel chain.
0:15:53 And you know me, I’m always thinking about the next side hustle idea.
0:15:55 The next income stream, right?
0:15:59 And one that’s at the top of the list is hosting our place on Airbnb
0:16:00 while we’re traveling.
0:16:01 That way the house doesn’t have to sit empty.
0:16:04 We could use the income to help pay for the trip.
0:16:07 And we’ve heard from several successful Airbnb hosts on the show.
0:16:12 And what’s interesting is a lot of them started with almost that exact strategy.
0:16:16 Running their place or even a spare room while they’re out of town.
0:16:19 Taking inspiration from that, you might have an Airbnb
0:16:20 right under your nose.
0:16:23 In fact, your home might be worth more than you think.
0:16:27 You can find out how much at Airbnb.com/host.
0:16:32 That’s Airbnb.com/host to find out how much your home is worth.
0:16:38 All right, but we’re back with Allison Baggerly from inspiredbudget.com.
0:16:42 And the next holiday money making idea that I want to throw out is a Christmas card photos.
0:16:45 So my wife does wedding and family photography as her side hustle.
0:16:47 And two to $400 per session.
0:16:50 Everybody wants that nice family picture for their Christmas cards.
0:16:55 So for her season starts a little bit earlier, starts probably September, October.
0:16:57 You know, the weather is still nice-ish in the Northwest.
0:16:59 And then it kind of tapers off a little bit.
0:17:02 But if you’re in a warmer climate, you can go into November in some cases.
0:17:05 But people, you know, want that nice looking everybody looking at the camera.
0:17:07 Everybody smiling, happy.
0:17:09 Say, look, here’s a snapshot of our beautiful family.
0:17:14 And this is one that can really pay off pretty well if you have the equipment and know how for it.
0:17:15 I love it.
0:17:20 I see one on your list that I almost wish I knew about years ago
0:17:22 so that I could have utilized it.
0:17:23 Not like I don’t want to do this.
0:17:24 I want someone to do this for me.
0:17:27 And it’s drive by grinching.
0:17:31 Nick, I had never heard about this until I read about it.
0:17:32 Can you please talk about it?
0:17:35 Because it brings me so much joy as a mom.
0:17:38 And I’m like, I’m already thinking of ways to level this up.
0:17:39 Yeah, how could I hire this guy?
0:17:43 So this was a story that, you know, got some media attention a few years ago.
0:17:46 This is Ethan Heckler was the guy featured.
0:17:48 He was a teenager at the time in Colorado.
0:17:51 Dresses up, you know, buys the Grinch costume off of Amazon,
0:17:53 100 bucks, maybe 150 for like a really nice one.
0:17:55 And then starts going around people’s yards.
0:17:57 You know, parents would hire them to do this.
0:18:01 Messes up the decorations, you know, starts throwing snowballs at the window or something.
0:18:04 You know, the kids are watching and they’re like, the grinch is here.
0:18:06 You know, we better be good for Christmas.
0:18:10 I mean, you could do the same thing, you know, hire a Santa to drive by or,
0:18:13 you know, have buddy the elf, you know, walk by or something.
0:18:16 I think plenty of opportunity to recreate this in your local neighborhood
0:18:18 and make it kind of a thing.
0:18:19 Yes, and it’s fun.
0:18:20 I mean, it’s fun.
0:18:23 It seems like it has an end date.
0:18:25 So if anyone’s looking for something that says, you know what?
0:18:27 I don’t want to commit to something long term.
0:18:29 This has a clear end date, right?
0:18:32 Christmas day or Christmas Eve.
0:18:35 And I think it probably is something that just spreads joy.
0:18:38 And it’s good to do that and earn money at the same time.
0:18:42 Yeah, according to this article, he was charging 20 bucks a piece
0:18:46 and probably got tips on top of that and booked over a hundred jobs.
0:18:50 So a couple thousand bucks over the period of a few weeks as a teenager, not a bad gig.
0:18:54 Yeah, I’m like, OK, in a couple of years, I’m going to have my son do that.
0:18:55 That sounds easy.
0:18:57 You can even just put it on like a sign up genius,
0:19:02 just some easy way to sign up, pay and show up at whatever time you’re supposed to do.
0:19:03 I love it.
0:19:07 Yeah, another one that kind of maybe piggybacks off the top of that
0:19:12 is doing corporate events or company parties, either as a photographer,
0:19:16 as a part-time bartender, as entertainment at the event.
0:19:19 We talked to Brian McGovern on the show a few years ago,
0:19:24 who was kind of like a sleight of hand magician/comedian type of performer.
0:19:29 And what he says is like, look, you want to book me a Tuesday in July, I’m selling cheap.
0:19:32 But if you need me at a Friday evening or Saturday evening in December,
0:19:35 like the rates go through the roof, it’s just supply and demand.
0:19:38 And you know, he was making, he’s like, I always love magic.
0:19:41 He’s like, I make $1,000 a month doing this, started as a side hustle,
0:19:45 then kind of became his full-time thing as he was easing toward retirement.
0:19:46 I love that.
0:19:49 That’s cool because it’s something that is almost like a hobby
0:19:54 that morphed into a solution for him to make more money, save money,
0:19:56 quit, you say quit his job.
0:19:58 Like that’s incredible.
0:19:58 I love it.
0:20:03 Okay, I saw one on here that is also definitely has an end date,
0:20:06 and it is a Christmas tree decorating service.
0:20:14 Says Amanda Ware, quit her job as a teacher to become a traveling Christmas tree decorator,
0:20:18 where she only works a couple of months a year, takes off the rest of the time.
0:20:21 And that is amazing.
0:20:24 Yeah, isn’t this, she charges an average of $1,000 per tree,
0:20:24 which is great.
0:20:27 And some households have multiple trees, like to give you a sense of the types
0:20:29 of clients that she’s targeting.
0:20:35 But we had somebody sent me this, it was like a porch pumpkin decorating service.
0:20:39 And it was like these niche, people are spending money on this kind of stuff.
0:20:45 If you can kind of establish a name in your local area and build a little bit of a social
0:20:48 following and take beautiful pictures of your work, you end up getting booked up.
0:20:51 What would stress me out is the seasonality.
0:20:54 I mean, I guess you just have to get over that mindset of like,
0:20:58 well, I’m going to sit around and well, I guess I got the other 11 months to do
0:20:59 almost nothing.
0:21:03 And then I’m going to bank on making everything in this really quick rush of a period.
0:21:07 But, you know, everybody, those interior decorator jobs are like have a high appeal,
0:21:08 same with like event planning.
0:21:10 And like it seems like, oh, that seems like such a cool job.
0:21:13 But here’s an example of somebody getting it done,
0:21:15 making a living doing the Christmas tree decorating thing.
0:21:18 We had, well, actually, Andrew Ginkola, our friend from FinCon.
0:21:23 I mean, the personal finance podcast told me the story about starting a Christmas tree stand
0:21:26 itself. Like, I think it was, you know, church parking lot, busy intersection,
0:21:30 you know, having a contact in North Carolina where we got the trees from,
0:21:31 ship them down to Florida.
0:21:35 And I remember he said, you want the guy who walks up the lot.
0:21:36 Where’s the biggest tree you got, right?
0:21:39 It’s like, OK, I know that’s going to be like a $400 sale or something.
0:21:42 And more overhead, more time required.
0:21:44 I guess you could hire staff to go and do this.
0:21:46 But there’s a stand down the road from us.
0:21:50 It’s just kind of a little pop up vacant lot in the corner of this busy intersection.
0:21:54 And I got to imagine that they do a killing over the over the course of five or six weeks.
0:21:55 Yeah, I bet they do.
0:21:56 And it’s always fun.
0:21:57 It’s people enjoy it.
0:21:59 They go out as a family, grab a tree.
0:22:00 I did that growing up.
0:22:03 And I have amazing memories of being able to do that.
0:22:04 And so I don’t know.
0:22:08 I guess I’m always I’m also thinking like you get to provide that for people.
0:22:12 You get to provide that joy and make some money in the process.
0:22:14 Another one on the list is baking.
0:22:15 Now, I’m not a big baker.
0:22:22 But if you do enjoy baking, this can extend beyond those just cookies,
0:22:26 like the really beautiful cookies I’m even thinking of like toffee,
0:22:30 even if it’s like gourmet popcorn that you make.
0:22:33 Imagine selling that to companies that are going to be hosting a party.
0:22:37 And so everyone walks away with a bag of their your gourmet popcorn that’s homemade.
0:22:40 There are so many options during this season.
0:22:41 People are busy.
0:22:43 They might not have time to bake.
0:22:46 They might not want to bake, but they want to show up to parties
0:22:49 with something in hand that tastes delicious, looks beautiful.
0:22:52 And so this is a really great option for anyone with an oven,
0:22:55 with an oven and a love of baking.
0:22:55 Yeah.
0:22:57 And if you’re going to want to expand that, you’re probably going to need to go
0:23:01 through some commercial kitchen license or cottage kitchen,
0:23:03 kitchen license, registrations and stuff.
0:23:05 But you know, our friend was doing this in Livermore
0:23:09 and she would sell out 50 bucks for a dozen cookies.
0:23:13 You know, she got really good at the custom decorations
0:23:16 and that was a really significant source of income.
0:23:20 And it kind of became a little bit of a party, you know, on pickup day, right?
0:23:24 So she batch process everything and then have people come by the driveway and pick them up.
0:23:26 She’s like, “I can’t ship. I can’t do delivery.”
0:23:29 And maybe she would do local delivery, but just the way that their license worked.
0:23:32 But if you come by my place and pick them up and Venmo me and we’ll be good.
0:23:33 Yeah.
0:23:37 I’ve known people personally that have done this and they’ve even done
0:23:42 the cookies that are already in the box and it goes home to the kids and the kids decorate it.
0:23:47 Or even a cookie decorating class where you can go and bring kids.
0:23:51 Or it’s just people who want to learn how to decorate cookies.
0:23:55 So there’s, there’s some ideas of ways to expand that.
0:23:58 Leaning into that, there’s also like wreath making classes.
0:24:02 I’ve actually gone to one where we made a beautiful Christmas wreath.
0:24:08 I showed up, all of the supplies were there and some very creative person, more creative than me,
0:24:10 guided us through how to hand make our Christmas wreath.
0:24:13 I still use it to this day because it’s something I created.
0:24:18 And I probably paid 60 or $70 to hang out with some of my friends and do this.
0:24:23 I saw it as an opportunity to have a girl’s night and walk away with a beautiful Christmas wreath.
0:24:25 Mm-hmm. Yeah, I really like that one.
0:24:29 We’ll call it the experience economy where it’s like a,
0:24:32 it’s an excuse to get out in the real world, hang out with friends,
0:24:34 do something creative, crafty with your hands.
0:24:37 Like the sip and, sip and paint type of places.
0:24:40 You paint this picture or make this pottery thing.
0:24:42 And you got the appetizers and the wine going.
0:24:47 We did an episode last month with an episode or with a woman who was doing these craft workshops.
0:24:48 Started out on making earrings.
0:24:50 I’m trying to sell them on Etsy.
0:24:53 I’m trying to sell them on like, you know, local markets and stuff.
0:24:55 She’s like, wait a minute, I can teach other people how to make these earrings.
0:24:57 You know, it takes the same amount of time.
0:25:00 And all of a sudden I got 20 or 40 people paying me to come to this class.
0:25:01 And that was her thing.
0:25:03 But I really liked the idea of putting a Christmas spin on it.
0:25:06 The gingerbread decorating class, the cookie decorating class,
0:25:08 the wreath making type of class.
0:25:11 She specifically said, I want to go after the, you know,
0:25:14 community center type of venues because they were really cheap to rent.
0:25:17 And you bring in your own supplies, materials, do your own marketing,
0:25:19 and get some people in the door.
0:25:20 Yeah, that’s great.
0:25:22 We just did ours at a friend’s house.
0:25:24 A friend knew this person and said, hey, can you get,
0:25:26 I can get 10 women to come in and do this.
0:25:29 And so then it cost you nowhere.
0:25:31 It cost you no money to host it.
0:25:33 I think that the person whose home was in,
0:25:35 like she got to do her wreath for free.
0:25:36 So not bad.
0:25:37 Yeah, very cool.
0:25:42 You know, one of the kids additions that we’ve added this year has been a 3D printer.
0:25:44 And so sometimes we go to these events, like we had salmon days.
0:25:47 This is all about, you know, the return of the salmon.
0:25:49 Like this is a big thing you learn about in elementary school.
0:25:55 But there was a booth selling like 3D printed dragons and other little figurines.
0:25:56 And, you know, now having the printer, you know,
0:25:58 the cost of the filament is, you know,
0:26:02 there’s like maybe $2 worth of material into this $25 thing that they’re selling.
0:26:06 And like, oh, I wonder if you could 3D print some Christmas ornaments
0:26:10 or other decoration type of items and try and sell those too.
0:26:14 Well, Nick, my son, my 12 year old son also has a 3D printer.
0:26:15 When you said the dragons, I’m like,
0:26:17 I could probably walk in the next room and grab one.
0:26:20 He sells those at school and middle school.
0:26:24 He walked around with a backpack full of 3D printed dragons
0:26:26 and other things he takes special orders.
0:26:30 And he’s literally selling them and someone came in
0:26:34 and started selling them for a lot more and then Evan got more business
0:26:36 because everyone was like, you’re expensive.
0:26:38 We’re going to go to Evan because he’s cheap.
0:26:41 And so, yeah, I mean, he’s selling these dragons.
0:26:43 And then I said, what are you doing with your money?
0:26:44 And he said, I’m buying candy.
0:26:48 So we have some work to do for using that money for good purpose.
0:26:53 But you would be surprised at what a 3D printer can print.
0:26:57 I was surprised to see the type of quality things that he’s coming out with.
0:26:58 And like you said, the cost of filament.
0:27:03 And then obviously the 3D printer to start up is another cost.
0:27:05 But if you have one already, that’s awesome.
0:27:06 Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know.
0:27:07 It’s really cool.
0:27:10 It’s creative to see what they can come up with in terms of the design.
0:27:12 In terms of the designs that are even already out there
0:27:14 that you can go out and create.
0:27:18 We created the razor scooters are always just all over the garage.
0:27:20 And so we ended up looking first on Amazon.
0:27:23 Is there like a little stand you could stick that front wheel in?
0:27:25 And then, of course, the thing is like, shoot,
0:27:27 that looks like something we ought to be able to print.
0:27:29 Sure enough, like, oh, it works pretty well.
0:27:33 So it’s become a practical addition,
0:27:36 rather than just a fun educational type of thing as well.
0:27:37 The next idea that I want to throw out
0:27:40 is maybe a little bit more practical hours for dollars type of thing.
0:27:43 And that’s to pick up just additional shifts.
0:27:47 They’re a bunch of like odd job apps or shift work apps or gig apps
0:27:50 that as companies look to ramp up retail staff, restaurant staff,
0:27:52 warehouse staff during the holidays,
0:27:56 it’s an opportunity to come on board and pick up some extra hours.
0:27:57 If you have the capacity to do that.
0:28:01 One Nolo is one that has been reasonably high regularly.
0:28:04 I think it’s work now locally, onenolo.com.
0:28:05 But you check that out.
0:28:07 We’ve got a few others that we can link up in the resources there.
0:28:11 Generally, hourly rates get very based on where you live,
0:28:14 but usually in the 15 to $20 an hour range.
0:28:16 So not super, super high earning power,
0:28:20 but definitely an option for low barrier to entry.
0:28:21 And I got to make money quickly.
0:28:25 Another one for low barrier to entry and I think guaranteed money.
0:28:28 When we talk about all of these creative ideas,
0:28:30 sometimes you’re wondering, is that actually like,
0:28:33 how am I going to find people to pay me for this stuff?
0:28:36 But one that you will not have trouble for is donating plasma.
0:28:38 Have you ever donated plasma, Nick?
0:28:39 Yeah, I haven’t either.
0:28:43 I was 10 to two in college, but I didn’t actually cross that barrier.
0:28:44 I have known people who did,
0:28:47 but that’s one of those ways of doing it once,
0:28:51 getting 20 to 50 bucks in your pocket,
0:28:53 and being able to say, okay, this is going to help.
0:28:57 Just offset the cost of some of those expenses for Christmas.
0:29:01 Like you said, people are spending about $1,000 on average.
0:29:07 And any way that you can just make a couple $50 here, $200 there,
0:29:11 just helps offset that cost so that you don’t end up in credit card debt
0:29:13 and dreading the day after Christmas
0:29:15 when you have to deal with all these financial choices.
0:29:16 Yeah, exactly.
0:29:19 If you can find ways to offset the cost as those costs are coming in.
0:29:22 And this is one from what I hear,
0:29:24 relatively painless as long as you don’t mind needles too much.
0:29:26 And a lot of the new,
0:29:28 rather a lot of the plasma donation centers
0:29:31 have this like new donor incentive program
0:29:33 where it’s like, if you make four donations
0:29:34 in your first five weeks or something,
0:29:35 we’ll give you this bonus.
0:29:37 And so it could be a good time to get into that.
0:29:41 Of course, do your own due diligence on long-term benefits.
0:29:44 By understanding is your body regenerates the plasma relatively quickly.
0:29:47 So you can donate more often than you could donate blood or something like that.
0:29:50 It’s like, well, it takes a while to recoup that loss.
0:29:51 But in this case, it sounds like it’s pretty quick.
0:29:56 So we’ve got that idea for you and a bunch more coming up right after this.
0:30:01 All right, we’re back with Allison from inspiredbudget.com
0:30:03 with more money-making ideas for the holidays.
0:30:06 We talked about some low barrier to entry types of side hustles.
0:30:09 Another one that is going to make just about everyone’s list
0:30:12 is to do the delivery game or the ride share game.
0:30:18 This is, look, maybe not the most lucrative long-term type of side hustle,
0:30:20 but it is hours for dollars.
0:30:22 It is something that you can start relatively quickly.
0:30:24 This, of course, is Instacart.
0:30:25 This is Uber Eats.
0:30:26 This is Lyft.
0:30:31 These are plug-and-play type of things where if you don’t mind driving around
0:30:33 and you’ve got the time and capacity to do that,
0:30:36 absolutely a way to offset some of those holiday costs.
0:30:42 One that I will never be doing because I live in Texas is snow removal.
0:30:44 I am not familiar with this,
0:30:48 but I am assuming that in areas where it does snow a lot,
0:30:50 people have to get to work.
0:30:53 And I’m guessing there is definitely a pain
0:30:57 when it comes to early morning snow removal.
0:30:59 So snow removal, great idea.
0:31:04 You can go go in low cost by doing it all manually, I’m assuming.
0:31:08 I have no idea how much it costs to purchase a snow blower.
0:31:09 I don’t even know how it works.
0:31:12 But what I can say is I know people,
0:31:15 and I know that people don’t necessarily like doing chores like this.
0:31:19 And so this is a really great option specifically for the wintertime
0:31:22 for you to go around, help neighbors out,
0:31:26 get some money in turn for it, and good old manual labor.
0:31:26 Good old manual.
0:31:28 Yeah, you could shovel the driveway.
0:31:29 You could do it the old-fashioned way
0:31:31 or get that snow plow attachment for your truck.
0:31:34 It reminds me of Mr. Plow from the Simpsons back in the day.
0:31:36 We had some friends that lived up in the mountains
0:31:38 or had a second home up in the mountains.
0:31:41 And they would call the guy on their way up if they knew it had snowed.
0:31:43 And he’d come make a special trip.
0:31:45 I think it was probably 40 bucks per shot
0:31:47 to just clear the berm off of the driveway
0:31:50 because the city plow would come in and do the road.
0:31:52 But then, of course, they would pile up this four-foot thing of snow.
0:31:54 So we can’t get it to the driveway.
0:31:56 It’s like, okay, so the other guy would come out and clear out the driveway.
0:31:58 And so you get a recurrent,
0:32:00 especially if you have that winter climate where it makes sense.
0:32:03 You could have 20, 40, 50 bucks a job, I imagine.
0:32:06 Yeah. And people that want to use you over and over again,
0:32:09 you could be just be on speed dial, be the snow person.
0:32:12 Yes. Okay, I’ve got one that you could do while you’re out
0:32:14 and about doing your Christmas shopping
0:32:16 and might not make a special trip for it.
0:32:19 But while you’re out about, and this is Field Agent,
0:32:20 which is a mystery shopping app,
0:32:23 or kind of like a sometimes a product display checking app,
0:32:26 you pull it up, they’ll give you which gigs are nearby.
0:32:30 And if you could stack up three, four, five of them in proximity,
0:32:32 maybe they’re at their same store or nearby stores,
0:32:34 and it’s like, go check this product display,
0:32:36 or go test out this product sometimes,
0:32:38 we’ll reimburse you, you gotta tell us what you think.
0:32:40 Most of these are not huge, like, you know,
0:32:42 three to 10 or 12 bucks a piece.
0:32:44 But if you could stack them up on top of the errands
0:32:46 that you’re already running, the shopping that you’re already doing,
0:32:49 come again, it’s a fun little, a fun little extra side hustle.
0:32:52 One that I actually came up literally today,
0:32:55 I went and got coffee with my friend this morning.
0:32:58 And when we were driving back, she said,
0:33:01 “Allison, I wish, I kid you not,” she said this.
0:33:02 I’m not making this up for the podcast.
0:33:06 She said, “I want to hire someone to come clean my house
0:33:08 just before the holidays.”
0:33:09 Like, do a deep clean of her house.
0:33:11 She doesn’t want to hire someone necessarily
0:33:12 every other week or once a month,
0:33:16 but she wants some extra help with getting her house clean,
0:33:18 ready for company right before the holidays.
0:33:21 So residential or commercial cleaning service,
0:33:23 this is a really great opportunity
0:33:25 because people want to put their best foot forward
0:33:28 when it comes to the way their house is presented,
0:33:29 and they also want help in the process.
0:33:33 So, it looks like Anthony and Janilka
0:33:35 grew their Dallas area residential cleaning service
0:33:38 to $25,000 a month in revenue.
0:33:41 And I’m guessing they hired out other cleaners
0:33:43 to do that for them, but some people like cleaning.
0:33:47 I mean, I get myself stuck on the cleaning TikTok videos,
0:33:49 and I don’t even enjoy it,
0:33:53 but I definitely would be willing to hire someone to come do that for me.
0:33:55 Yeah, they’re probably over 100 grand a month now.
0:33:57 That was several years ago,
0:33:59 and we’ll do another upcoming episode on
0:34:00 how to start this cleaning business
0:34:03 without having to do the cleaning yourself.
0:34:06 It’s one of these column super fragmented market
0:34:09 where if you think about your local area or even nationally,
0:34:11 there’s no dominant player
0:34:13 that has more than just a sliver of market share.
0:34:16 And so that spells an opportunity
0:34:18 to kind of create a branded custom,
0:34:21 not custom, but like a professional presence
0:34:25 that a lot of these solo operator type of businesses don’t have,
0:34:26 or they rely on word of mouth.
0:34:29 They don’t have a huge digital marketing presence.
0:34:32 And so if you can come in and provide that
0:34:35 and then go find people who know how to do the cleaning,
0:34:36 you’ll help them.
0:34:38 Hey, we’re going to help you get more business
0:34:39 and fill up your calendar.
0:34:41 It can be a win for everybody.
0:34:43 So that’s kind of the game that they were playing
0:34:46 and the way that it has been presented on the show in the past.
0:34:47 On the commercial side,
0:34:52 it was going after restaurants and offices
0:34:53 and the side hustle appeal there.
0:34:55 It’s like, well, it’s got to happen in the off hours.
0:34:57 It’s got to happen after the restaurant closes.
0:34:59 It’s got to happen after people go home for the day from the office.
0:35:02 And so it made a good side hustle on that front.
0:35:05 And similarly, like the people that we talked to started off,
0:35:07 I’m going to do it myself, make extra money.
0:35:08 And then as it starts to scale,
0:35:09 well, I can’t be three places at once.
0:35:11 So I got to hire a team to go do this
0:35:14 and kind of elevate yourself to that CEO
0:35:16 or chief operating person level
0:35:19 and you’re managing schedules and everything else.
0:35:21 And I love how you said when it starts to scale,
0:35:24 because the people who are doing this maybe one-on-one
0:35:25 don’t know how to scale,
0:35:28 but they want to be able to fill their calendar.
0:35:30 They want to be able to have that consistent income.
0:35:33 So like you said, if you were to kind of become like the person
0:35:38 that’s in charge of this area of housekeeping or cleaning services,
0:35:41 then you are also providing that opportunity
0:35:42 for people to have that consistent income,
0:35:45 which I think is great, like within your community.
0:35:48 Yeah. And definitely one that has legs beyond just the holiday season,
0:35:50 where a lot of the times the bread and butter
0:35:54 is that recurring weekly, bi-weekly, monthly type of service.
0:35:56 So it’s like, if I get a client and they like what I’m doing
0:35:59 and they grow accustomed to having their house cleaned
0:36:00 at a regular frequency,
0:36:02 they’re likely to stick around for a long time.
0:36:06 So it can be a pretty sticky business in that sense too.
0:36:09 One fun one that we’ve done in the past,
0:36:10 a little bit less so recently,
0:36:12 is this print-on-demand type of side hustle,
0:36:15 where if you have a family gathering
0:36:18 and you want everybody to have the matching shirt that says,
0:36:23 “Friendsgiving 2024,” or “Family Reunion,”
0:36:24 something like that.
0:36:25 Some fancy Christmas saying,
0:36:29 “Maybe pull something from a movie, Santa, I know him,”
0:36:30 or something like that.
0:36:32 You can absolutely make this.
0:36:35 You do Amazon merch, you do Redbubble.
0:36:37 You could even, I’m thinking of just selling it to your family
0:36:39 or having everybody contribute the cost,
0:36:41 but you can also put it out to a much broader market
0:36:43 and see if anybody else likes your design,
0:36:46 typically make four or five bucks per shirt.
0:36:47 So kind of a volume game,
0:36:51 but it’s kind of a fun one to play that creativity card.
0:36:53 And I enjoy people watching,
0:36:55 seeing what people have on their shirts,
0:36:57 knowing that somebody on Etsy might have sold that
0:37:00 or somebody on Amazon might have sold that six months ago.
0:37:01 Yeah.
0:37:06 Speaking of clothing, a mobile laundry service.
0:37:09 Clothing and cleaning, where you run by,
0:37:12 pick up laundry for people who are really busy.
0:37:16 Maybe they don’t have an in-unit washer dryer
0:37:18 if they live in a very urban area.
0:37:22 You can do laundry, return it, all folded.
0:37:25 It’s a great way for you to make extra money
0:37:28 by literally just washing clothes
0:37:29 and doing something else in your off-time.
0:37:31 Heck, you could be washing clothes
0:37:33 and then doing some online surveys
0:37:36 and making money doing online surveys
0:37:39 while you’re making money washing people’s laundry
0:37:41 and doing this mobile laundry service.
0:37:41 Yeah, that’s right.
0:37:43 The machine is doing the work for you most of the time.
0:37:45 And then, yeah, you gotta fold it when it comes out.
0:37:47 Because, of course, there’s gotta be a gig app
0:37:49 or a peer-to-peer app for everything these days.
0:37:51 The laundry app is called Poplin
0:37:52 or one of the laundry apps.
0:37:55 They’re probably not everywhere just yet,
0:37:58 but they seem to be doing a little bit of a marketing push.
0:38:00 They sent me one of these,
0:38:01 “Hey, if you want to cover this story,
0:38:03 “had some people earning up to $6,000 a month,”
0:38:05 which is probably a lot of laundry.
0:38:07 And I don’t know what that works to on an hourly basis
0:38:09 in the wear and tear you’re putting on your own washing machine.
0:38:12 But still, it’s not nothing it can add up.
0:38:16 If people in your area are starting to use this type of app,
0:38:19 we had even a listener in Australia send me a note.
0:38:22 She’s like, “I think I put on my about page or something.
0:38:23 “Like, I just hate ironing
0:38:24 “and I’m very grateful to have a job
0:38:25 “where this is not required anymore.”
0:38:27 I was just like, “This is a pet peeve of mine.”
0:38:30 And she’s like, “Hey, I love the show. Love your site.”
0:38:31 I actually love ironing.
0:38:32 It actually turned that into a side hustle.
0:38:34 And now I get paid to watch movies.
0:38:36 You know, I sit here and iron other people’s clothes.
0:38:38 I was like, “Oh, okay, three, 400 bucks a month
0:38:41 “doing something to that mobile laundry service.”
0:38:42 This is another good one to add to the list.
0:38:44 – And it’s something you can do after work.
0:38:47 So you can have a regular nine to five, come home,
0:38:49 do that at night, and you don’t have to be out of the house,
0:38:50 which I think is great too.
0:38:52 ‘Cause a lot of people don’t necessarily
0:38:53 want to do that if they don’t have to.
0:38:55 So it’s another option for that.
0:38:57 – Yes. Oh, we’ve got one that the,
0:39:00 it’s usually like the Boy Scout troop does.
0:39:03 It’s the Christmas tree pickup service after the holidays.
0:39:06 And so with $10 donation, $20 donation,
0:39:07 they’ll come by with this big truck
0:39:10 with kind of a flatbed trailer with walls and stuff on the side.
0:39:13 And they’ll put your, take your tree away afterwards.
0:39:15 It’s like, okay, you could do something similar
0:39:18 or you could take a page out of the 1800 Got Junk playbook.
0:39:20 Probably better for after the holidays
0:39:22 where people get new gifts
0:39:24 and they’re like, “Well, we gotta get rid of this old stuff.
0:39:25 “What should we do?”
0:39:27 Maybe you could sell it on consignment,
0:39:28 offer to do that in your neighborhood.
0:39:30 Maybe you could do the junk removal service
0:39:31 like Brian was doing with 1800 Got Junk.
0:39:35 But other ways to take advantage of that decluttering trend.
0:39:39 – Okay, I have to do this one, I have to say it, caregiving.
0:39:43 I personally used to make a lot of money as a teenager,
0:39:46 just whenever parents were wanting to go out
0:39:49 to their Christmas parties, friend parties.
0:39:52 So caregiving, you don’t have to be a teenager to do this.
0:39:53 I would actually prefer an adult,
0:39:57 maybe come into my home and watch my kids versus a teenager.
0:40:00 There are so many sites, care.com, sitter cities.
0:40:04 You can even do caregiving for older people who need help.
0:40:06 I have one of my really good friends.
0:40:07 Her mom suffered a stroke
0:40:09 and she hires a caregiver to come in
0:40:11 and this is a consistent caregiver
0:40:13 that just comes in once a day
0:40:17 and make sure she can do her dishes
0:40:19 and has taken her medicine.
0:40:22 It’s a really great way for someone who enjoys being around others
0:40:26 and has an empathetic heart to make some money in the process.
0:40:28 – Yeah, and consistent demand for it.
0:40:30 Sometimes the schools are gonna have
0:40:32 their charity auction fundraiser.
0:40:33 You need a babysitter for the night.
0:40:36 Again, if you can become the go-to person for that family,
0:40:41 likely to add up to more than just one gig over time.
0:40:44 – Exactly, I actually, when my kids were younger,
0:40:48 my husband and I would go to an event,
0:40:50 this church event every Wednesday night and go on a date
0:40:53 and we paid someone $50 every Wednesday.
0:40:56 Every Wednesday she came over at six o’clock or 6.30
0:40:58 and it was this consistent income for her
0:41:00 and it was a really great way for her to just make extra money
0:41:02 and we were happy to be able to just get out
0:41:04 and have a date night once a week.
0:41:05 – Yeah, it’s hard.
0:41:07 Whenever we hire a babysitter or are used to,
0:41:09 it’s like, well, now we gotta go to Taco Bell
0:41:12 because we’re paying the babysitter like 70 bucks
0:41:15 and it ended up being expensive outing sometimes.
0:41:17 – Yes, yeah, I can get expensive.
0:41:19 Thankfully we were going with a group of people
0:41:22 to like a friend’s house and we took weeks providing dinner.
0:41:25 So our dinner was free, that helped.
0:41:27 – Yes, that’s a good way to do it.
0:41:31 Along those lines of providing some kind of meal service,
0:41:35 there’s like private chef apps or there’s Eat With,
0:41:37 which is kind of like a hosted dinner type of app.
0:41:39 I think this might be interesting for people
0:41:41 who wanna have a holiday party
0:41:42 but don’t wanna do it themselves.
0:41:43 Like is there an opportunity to serve those people?
0:41:44 It’s like, oh, we’ll all host your meal.
0:41:46 I’m a really good chef.
0:41:47 This is what’s on the menu.
0:41:49 Find a venue, you hosted your place.
0:41:51 Seen some people doing pretty well with that type of thing
0:41:54 and given the number of holiday parties
0:41:56 that happen around this time of year,
0:41:57 I think that could be a really interesting one too.
0:41:59 – Okay, I’m looking at this list and I’m like,
0:42:03 we’ve gone through a lot of them
0:42:05 and I’m not sure what we haven’t covered.
0:42:07 Nick and I have been kind of jumping around the list
0:42:09 which makes it both exciting
0:42:12 for you to stay on your toes here.
0:42:12 – Lots of fun.
0:42:16 The one that I know we haven’t talked about yet
0:42:19 is this storage rental type of side hustle
0:42:21 and the holidays being on it,
0:42:24 I see is like, if somebody has Snoopy Kids
0:42:25 and you’re like, I know it’s not safe
0:42:26 to keep presents around here.
0:42:28 So I need them out of the house
0:42:30 but I don’t need a full-time storage unit.
0:42:33 There is a site called neighbor.com
0:42:35 which is like peer-to-peer storage
0:42:37 and it is primarily geared at,
0:42:38 I need a place to store my RV,
0:42:41 I need a place to park this car for a month.
0:42:43 I need, you know, like bigger stuff
0:42:45 but in the case of Christmas presents,
0:42:46 like, oh, could you keep them in your closet?
0:42:48 Could you keep them in your attic?
0:42:49 Could you keep them in a corner of the garage?
0:42:50 And something like this,
0:42:52 you know, kind of maybe a temporary thing
0:42:55 but looking around, I do see rates anywhere
0:42:57 from like 50 to $200 a month
0:43:00 for varying size of storage spaces near me.
0:43:02 So it may be another option too.
0:43:05 – I found another one that I have personally paid money
0:43:07 to have someone do this for me
0:43:10 and it is handmade crafts or gifts.
0:43:12 Obviously we all know that Etsy is a wonderful place
0:43:16 for creatives to get in front of people
0:43:17 who want to buy their work
0:43:20 and I have personally purchased from Etsy
0:43:24 probably every year, I buy gifts from Etsy
0:43:28 and I will purchase handmade ornaments for my children
0:43:30 that have their name and year on them.
0:43:31 I’ve done this from Etsy.
0:43:33 I’ve also done it from friends.
0:43:37 I had an old coworker that put on Facebook,
0:43:40 hey, she does hand lettering, just beautiful handwriting.
0:43:42 And so it was just a very simple ornament
0:43:44 that she got from Michaels probably for 50 cents.
0:43:48 And she would use a paint pen to write people’s names
0:43:49 and the year and those things,
0:43:51 she would sell them for five bucks.
0:43:53 But if you think about it,
0:43:58 it took her maybe a minute or two minutes to make it
0:44:00 probably a dollar total in costs.
0:44:03 And so that’s $4 per ornament.
0:44:07 She was selling them like crazy on Facebook
0:44:08 to people that she knew
0:44:11 who wanted this creative, beautiful,
0:44:12 memorable ornament on their tree.
0:44:15 So there’s likely something that you can make
0:44:16 if you’re that creative type
0:44:18 that you can sell to other people
0:44:23 and makes some good money around the holidays with that.
0:44:24 – Yeah, for sure.
0:44:26 Somebody, I don’t know if this will be visible,
0:44:29 but this is a 3D printed thing.
0:44:30 You can put it up to the window
0:44:32 and it’s a picture of me and my dad skiing
0:44:36 because of the different depths of the print,
0:44:37 like the light shines through it.
0:44:39 And it looks really cool.
0:44:40 Somebody sent me that a few years ago,
0:44:42 but lots of different craft ideas
0:44:45 and maybe something that you already know how to make
0:44:47 or other people have found value in.
0:44:50 It kind of goes back to that crafting workshops
0:44:52 or cookie decorating type of thing,
0:44:53 but lots of opportunity there
0:44:57 either to sell locally or through Etsy.
0:44:58 Tons of fun.
0:44:59 Love the ideas on this list.
0:45:01 If you have your own money-making ideas, absolutely.
0:45:03 You can hit us up by email.
0:45:05 Hit us up on social media.
0:45:07 InspiredBudget.com is where you can find more
0:45:10 about Allison, check out the book, Money Made Easy,
0:45:13 subtitle, How to Budget, Pay Off Debt and Save Money.
0:45:16 And of course, the Inspired Budget podcast,
0:45:18 almost 200 episodes to binge on over there
0:45:20 if you wanna get better with your money.
0:45:21 And Allison, what’s going on these days?
0:45:22 What are you excited about?
0:45:23 – Oh my goodness.
0:45:26 I’m excited about the new year.
0:45:28 This sounds crazy, but Nick,
0:45:30 I don’t know if this is gonna be a shock to you,
0:45:32 but people tend to not care about budgeting
0:45:34 around like November to December.
0:45:36 – Until January rolls around.
0:45:38 – Actually, Nick, one year,
0:45:40 the highest amount of traffic ever on my website,
0:45:44 InspiredBudget.com was Christmas Day.
0:45:47 Christmas Day, I got a huge spike in traffic
0:45:49 and I realized that it’s all of these parents,
0:45:51 they are sitting there, maybe in the afternoon,
0:45:53 they’re seeing all of the money
0:45:57 that they have just spent spread out in one place.
0:45:58 ‘Cause when you’re buying gifts here and there,
0:46:01 you’re not always aware of what you’re doing
0:46:03 ’cause it’s just every now and then you’re buying,
0:46:04 things are coming in at different times.
0:46:08 It’s all in their eyesight and they look at that
0:46:11 and they say, what have I done?
0:46:13 What have I gotten myself into?
0:46:16 And I’m not here to judge, I have been there,
0:46:17 I know that feeling.
0:46:19 And so I’m looking forward to the new year
0:46:22 when people are getting to that point where they say,
0:46:23 okay, I’ve seen what I’ve done
0:46:25 and I don’t like the way this makes me feel.
0:46:27 I’m ready to learn how to write a budget.
0:46:29 I wanna focus on paying off debt.
0:46:31 I wanna feel better about my money.
0:46:33 And I’m excited to be that person to say like,
0:46:34 yeah, let’s do it.
0:46:36 Like I’m here, let’s go.
0:46:38 We’re gonna talk about how to make this work
0:46:39 without hating your life in the process.
0:46:43 So that is what I am looking forward to.
0:46:46 It’s just post-Christmas when people are excited
0:46:50 about taking actual steps to manage their money better.
0:46:52 – Yeah, that’s like your opening day.
0:46:54 You’re like, hey, game on, I’ve been here for years
0:46:58 helping people and let’s get a new crop of people in here.
0:47:01 It’s interesting, I see a spike in January as well
0:47:03 and maybe immediately post-Christmas.
0:47:05 This is gonna be the year that I start my side hustle.
0:47:07 Maybe it’s new year’s resolutions.
0:47:09 Maybe it’s that similar feeling of like,
0:47:10 oh, we just spent how much?
0:47:12 Let’s figure out a way to offset some of that cost.
0:47:13 But definitely interesting.
0:47:15 InspiredBudget.com, check her out over there.
0:47:16 Check out the podcast.
0:47:18 Big thanks to Allison for sharing her insight.
0:47:21 As I mentioned, we’ve got links to all the different
0:47:22 resources, all the different ideas
0:47:25 that we talked about in this episode in the show notes.
0:47:27 You just follow the link in the episode description
0:47:28 and it’ll get you right over there.
0:47:29 Big thanks to our sponsors
0:47:31 for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:47:34 As always, you can hit up sidehustlenation.com/deals
0:47:37 for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
0:47:38 Thanks for supporting the advertisers.
0:47:39 That supports the show.
0:47:40 That is it for me.
0:47:41 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:47:43 Until next time, let’s go out there
0:47:44 and make something happen
0:47:46 and I’ll catch you in the next edition
0:47:47 of the Side Hustle Show.

0:00:02 Here’s an oldie but a goodie from the archives,
0:00:05 from the Side Hustle Show, greatest hits collection.
0:00:10 How a free challenge turned into a $500,000 a year business.
0:00:13 Welcome to the Side Hustle Show.
0:00:15 We’re aspiring part-time entrepreneurs
0:00:18 learn how to turn their side hustle dreams into reality.
0:00:21 Because your nine to five may make you a living,
0:00:23 but your five to nine makes you alive.
0:00:26 And now your host, Nick Loper.
0:00:30 (upbeat music)
0:00:32 – What’s up, what’s up, Nick Loper here.
0:00:33 Welcome to the Side Hustle Show,
0:00:36 live from beautiful Livermore, California.
0:00:39 Got an awesome, inspiring, actionable show for you today.
0:00:43 My guest is Tiffany, the budget Nista Aliche.
0:00:45 She’s a former preschool teacher who’s built up a business
0:00:47 that’s on track to do half a million dollars
0:00:48 in revenue this year.
0:00:49 And the cool thing is,
0:00:52 it all started with a completely free challenge.
0:00:54 She runs the Live Richard Challenge
0:00:56 at LiveRichardChallenge.com,
0:00:58 which has helped more than 160,000 participants
0:01:01 save a collective $17 million
0:01:04 and pay off one and a half million dollars in debt.
0:01:06 In this episode, you’re gonna hear
0:01:09 how Tiffany came up with the challenge idea,
0:01:10 how she got people to join.
0:01:12 And now the four or five revenue streams
0:01:16 she’s using to turn this thing into a super successful business.
0:01:18 Notes and links to all the resources mentioned
0:01:22 are at sidehustlenation.com/liverichard.
0:01:23 And I know Tiffany’s challenge in marketing
0:01:26 have evolved in the years since this was recorded.
0:01:28 It may not exist in the same form that we talked about,
0:01:32 but my challenge to you is to think of how you could apply
0:01:34 a similar strategy in your own niche.
0:01:37 What kind of cool value-packed challenge could you offer
0:01:41 to reach new people and turn them into raving fans?
0:01:42 Ready?
0:01:43 Let’s do it.
0:01:45 (upbeat music)
0:01:47 – I was a preschool teacher for 10 years
0:01:48 and I was doing well.
0:01:52 I mean, I was making like between $65,000 and $70,000 a year
0:01:54 because I used to tutor on the side
0:01:57 and babysitting stuff on the side and everything seemed great.
0:01:59 A group in the house where money was talked about
0:02:03 all the time, my father was a CFO and an accountant.
0:02:04 So I just learned about money at home.
0:02:08 And then when I lost my job, everything fell apart.
0:02:10 Like I lost my savings.
0:02:12 I took all the money out of my retirement account.
0:02:13 Like they tell you not to.
0:02:15 I ran up my credit card debt.
0:02:16 My house went into foreclosure.
0:02:18 I was like, sheesh.
0:02:19 Like just everything fell apart.
0:02:23 And it was in the rebuilding that I realized,
0:02:25 okay, all the lessons I kind of learned at home
0:02:26 ’cause my dad was like serious
0:02:28 about like learning about money.
0:02:31 Like he took us to like money classes and stuff.
0:02:34 So I used, you know, everything that I learned.
0:02:35 – Well, that’s a great influence.
0:02:36 – No, it was honestly.
0:02:40 And so when I was rebuilding, people would ask me,
0:02:41 well, how are you doing it?
0:02:42 Because I’m in the same position.
0:02:45 So I just started showing family and friends
0:02:46 and that’s how it started.
0:02:47 – Family and friends are asking,
0:02:48 hey, what are you, what’s going on?
0:02:50 So did you end up getting a new job at that point?
0:02:51 Another teaching job?
0:02:53 – I knew I didn’t want to teach in the classroom anymore
0:02:55 just because I felt like I’d outgrown that.
0:02:58 So I was volunteering at all these different places
0:03:00 like the Boys and Girls Club, the United Way
0:03:02 and trying to figure out what I wanted to do,
0:03:04 thinking I wanted to be a party planner.
0:03:05 Don’t ask me where that came from.
0:03:06 But I was like, that’s what I totally want to do.
0:03:08 – That’s like everybody’s dream to be like a wedding
0:03:09 coordinator or something like that.
0:03:10 – I know.
0:03:13 And so, but in that, I found that as I was volunteering
0:03:15 for these different organizations,
0:03:17 I found myself sneaking into their classrooms
0:03:19 and watching their like presenters teach
0:03:21 and being like, that’s not how you do it.
0:03:23 And like teaching and showing them
0:03:26 and then as I was helping people
0:03:28 at the organization with their finances,
0:03:30 people started asking me more and more
0:03:31 and I would sit down with folks and they were like,
0:03:34 well, can you write us like a curriculum
0:03:35 since you’re a teacher?
0:03:36 And at the time I had my master’s
0:03:38 and I still do an education.
0:03:40 So I thought I was gonna become a principal one day,
0:03:41 but I didn’t.
0:03:44 And so I started writing curriculum and lesson plans
0:03:46 for these organizations where I was volunteering.
0:03:48 And so those lesson plans and curriculum
0:03:51 eventually became the literature challenge.
0:03:53 – Okay, listening to what people are asking you
0:03:56 for help with already, I like that.
0:03:59 What was like the first step in getting this challenge
0:03:59 off the ground?
0:04:02 I mean, did you take me about the early days?
0:04:04 Like I could, I could start like the side hustle challenge.
0:04:06 Like how am I getting my first participants?
0:04:09 – I started, I started a post at the end of 2014.
0:04:13 Like, hey, I’m gonna be doing a literature challenge.
0:04:14 It’s gonna be a free resource
0:04:16 to help you get on financial track.
0:04:18 If you’re interested, let me know below.
0:04:19 It was just a Facebook post.
0:04:21 – Just on your personal Facebook page.
0:04:22 – Mm-hmm.
0:04:24 And a ton of people were like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
0:04:26 ‘Cause by then I was already like three years
0:04:27 into being the budget nieces.
0:04:29 So around the city where I live,
0:04:30 people knew me to be like,
0:04:32 oh, that’s the financial education lady.
0:04:34 Because I had taught volunteering
0:04:35 does something great for you.
0:04:37 You get your face in front of so many people.
0:04:38 So people knew me.
0:04:40 So when I posted it, it wasn’t a huge surprise
0:04:44 because by then I was hosting free community classes.
0:04:45 They were sponsored by the United Way.
0:04:47 They would pay me and I would host classes
0:04:49 for the whole community to come to for free
0:04:51 and teaching financial education.
0:04:54 So when I said, hey, I’m gonna be doing it online,
0:04:57 the same stuff we do in class, people just showed interest.
0:04:58 And I did it on purpose
0:05:00 so I could start to collect interested parties.
0:05:03 And then I think I put up like an event-bright link
0:05:06 just so people can say that to add themselves to like a list.
0:05:08 And I didn’t, I wasn’t even using like, you know,
0:05:10 like Aweber or like Infusionsoft or anything like that.
0:05:12 It was just post-interest.
0:05:15 Here’s an easy free link to sign up
0:05:17 so I can collect the emails.
0:05:19 – Okay, so when somebody signs up for your event-bright thing,
0:05:20 which was it free?
0:05:21 – Yeah, it was free.
0:05:25 – Okay, so a free event-bright event.
0:05:28 And then that gave you their email address.
0:05:30 – And I started to craft
0:05:31 what I thought the challenge should be like.
0:05:34 I was like, all right, so I teach this six-week course
0:05:35 for the United Way.
0:05:37 So how do I condense this into,
0:05:39 I think at the time, the first challenge,
0:05:41 I condensed it into five weeks.
0:05:44 And the way the challenge works is I really played into
0:05:48 what I knew about people from a teaching perspective
0:05:51 is that people wanna be told exactly what to do.
0:05:53 They don’t want you to have them figure it out.
0:05:55 So I was like, okay, so instead of me saying,
0:05:57 here’s some ways to do stuff.
0:06:00 What if every single day I told you exactly what to do?
0:06:01 And so that’s the way the challenge works.
0:06:04 You sign up and every day in your inbox
0:06:06 for the length of the challenge, which is about a month,
0:06:09 you get one easy financial task that says,
0:06:12 hey, call your service provider.
0:06:13 Tell them you don’t have the money.
0:06:14 Here’s a script.
0:06:17 If they say no, here’s script number two.
0:06:20 If they say yes, here’s script number three.
0:06:22 And then let me know how it goes.
0:06:23 So that’s how each task went.
0:06:25 You didn’t have to know how to do anything
0:06:28 except for read, write, add, subtract.
0:06:30 – Okay, so for five weeks, people are getting,
0:06:32 it is all delivered through email.
0:06:33 – Yes.
0:06:34 – Are you writing these out like the day,
0:06:36 the morning of and hitting send?
0:06:39 – Yeah, in the beginning I was, and that was really hectic.
0:06:41 And so I realized, you know what?
0:06:43 Maybe are there other ways I can get people
0:06:45 to connect to different platforms?
0:06:47 So I’m like, okay, one, I finally,
0:06:48 I think I signed up at the time.
0:06:51 I use Infusionsoft now, but I was using Aweber.
0:06:54 So I’m like, okay, one, they’re opening my emails,
0:06:56 but what if I could get them to my blog?
0:06:57 So in the email, I would say,
0:07:00 hey, today’s task is learn how to budget.
0:07:02 You can learn how to rock this task here.
0:07:04 Link to the blog post.
0:07:06 So it like forces all of these people
0:07:09 to one, open my email, then two, head to my blog.
0:07:11 And then while on my blog,
0:07:13 I was like, I would have like, tweet this out.
0:07:15 So then I was like, every step of the way,
0:07:18 I was trying to get them to touch all of my platforms
0:07:20 to raise like my profile on all the platforms.
0:07:21 – Okay, okay.
0:07:22 Now there’s always a debate, like, oh, you know,
0:07:24 how much of the information do I include
0:07:25 in the body of the email?
0:07:28 Or just like, trying to get traffic back to the site.
0:07:29 I’m glad to hear your take on it.
0:07:30 – Because before then, like,
0:07:32 I don’t really consider myself a blogger
0:07:34 because I was literally blogging like,
0:07:35 I mean, if you got something out of me
0:07:37 once every four months, you’re lucky.
0:07:38 So I didn’t have anything on there
0:07:40 and trying to get my blog active.
0:07:42 And so this was kind of the way like, okay,
0:07:46 well, I know that at the time, my first year in 2015,
0:07:48 I wanted 10,000 people to sign up and we got that.
0:07:51 We got about 20,000 people signed up for the challenge.
0:07:54 And I would say about 50 to 60% of them
0:07:57 came fairly regularly to the blog via the daily emails.
0:08:00 For me, sometimes things happen that I don’t plan on,
0:08:02 but it was totally awesome.
0:08:05 So I had this online Facebook group
0:08:07 and it was specifically for when I was teaching
0:08:10 these classes in person in the community and volunteering,
0:08:12 people kept emailing me and I was like,
0:08:14 look, I can’t email everybody back the same answer.
0:08:16 I’m gonna form a Facebook group.
0:08:17 If you’re a class member,
0:08:19 if you’ve come to one of my classes,
0:08:20 post your question here.
0:08:22 I just added those people to the Facebook group.
0:08:25 And I called it Dreamcatcher’s Live Richer.
0:08:29 And somehow people from the challenge found the group.
0:08:30 I didn’t post it anywhere.
0:08:31 I don’t know how they found it.
0:08:34 And people started adding themselves and asking to join
0:08:37 and then sharing what was happening with them
0:08:38 during the challenge.
0:08:40 And I was like, this group is not for that.
0:08:43 And then I realized, duh, dummy, light bulb, this is awesome.
0:08:47 And so I started posting the group link in the blog post,
0:08:52 like, hey, tell me how you rocked out on today’s task here,
0:08:53 group link to the Facebook group.
0:08:56 And it’s a private group, so you have to request to join.
0:08:58 And that is what really made the challenge take off
0:09:01 because now you had people, 10,000 people,
0:09:05 every single day talking about one particular task
0:09:06 that you gave to them.
0:09:07 – Now you mentioned people, okay,
0:09:09 they’re gonna link to the blog
0:09:11 and then they’re gonna have an opportunity to share this
0:09:14 on their own Facebook and on Twitter and stuff,
0:09:16 starting out with your own personal network
0:09:18 that you’d built over the years,
0:09:20 doing these in-person classes.
0:09:23 I’m curious how you went from your personal network
0:09:25 in this world, and maybe you just had a huge network,
0:09:27 to getting 20,000 people over the course of a year.
0:09:31 Like, there was some element of virality there,
0:09:33 you know, a tipping point,
0:09:36 and what do you think led to that explosive growth?
0:09:38 – Honestly, it was not explosive.
0:09:40 It was, like, it was so, like,
0:09:43 because what I did was I started in,
0:09:44 I want to say June,
0:09:48 and it literally took till January of the next year
0:09:50 to get the first, like, to get 10,000.
0:09:52 Like, every week was like,
0:09:56 we had to scrape big for people to join.
0:09:58 So my initial networks, I’ll tell you,
0:10:00 when I first put it up, I think 500 people instantly.
0:10:03 So that was, like, my, hey, I know Tiffany network.
0:10:04 – But that’s good, that’s okay.
0:10:06 – You know, because you have to remember,
0:10:08 by then, I had been teaching financial education
0:10:10 in the community, and I think I had, like,
0:10:12 an email list of, like, 2,500.
0:10:15 So getting 500, it was like, okay, 500 folks.
0:10:16 – Sure, sure.
0:10:19 – And then two, before Facebook kind of, like,
0:10:21 made this illegal, when I first was starting the budget
0:10:25 in 2009, 2010, one of my homeworks to myself was,
0:10:28 I used to go and friend 100 new people a day,
0:10:30 or at least request to friend them,
0:10:32 because I knew that, like, at the time,
0:10:35 Facebook didn’t have Facebook groups or Facebook business,
0:10:37 so I was using my personal page as, like,
0:10:40 a soft business page, so I wanted a whole bunch of friends.
0:10:42 – Just random people?
0:10:43 – Yes, so what I would do is, I’d be like,
0:10:45 like, let’s just say I was your friend,
0:10:48 and I’d be like, oh, Nick and I are friends in real life.
0:10:49 Let me go through Nick’s friends list.
0:10:50 These people have headshots.
0:10:52 He looks important, friend.
0:10:54 This one looks like, you know?
0:10:56 So literally, I would friend you based upon your picture.
0:10:57 You look like you work for a company
0:10:59 that might pay me to speak, friend.
0:11:02 And so literally, like, but like,
0:11:03 obviously you cannot do that now.
0:11:06 So now I have a friend list of, like, 5,000,
0:11:09 but really it started in 2010, and then in 2010,
0:11:10 I used to post a tip of the day,
0:11:13 a financial tip of the day on my Facebook page.
0:11:15 So on Facebook, I was known as, like,
0:11:19 and my nickname on Facebook, well, my name was Tiffany,
0:11:20 the budget needs to aliche.
0:11:22 And so I’m posting tips of the day.
0:11:25 I’m sharing pictures of me speaking around in the community.
0:11:27 So I had already laid a strong foundation
0:11:30 for when the challenge came, it wasn’t this huge,
0:11:31 like, who’s this girl?
0:11:33 It was like, we’ve seen for years that she does this.
0:11:34 – Now I’m looking back.
0:11:36 I was like, yeah, I think, I think we were friends
0:11:37 on Facebook before I ever met you.
0:11:39 I was like, wait a minute.
0:11:41 – You got caught up in the Facebook.
0:11:43 Like, hey, he looks like he might be somebody
0:11:45 who might know somebody who might know somebody.
0:11:47 – Oh, you get strong, you get strong, okay.
0:11:49 – And so, so when I put it out, yes,
0:11:50 about 500 people signed up right away,
0:11:53 but then I went to school, my bachelor’s degrees
0:11:55 in marketing, and I used every marketing thing
0:11:56 I could think of.
0:11:59 I used to do a quote of the day, like,
0:12:02 did you know 60% of women, you know,
0:12:03 don’t have enough for retirement.
0:12:05 Don’t let that be used, started for the challenge.
0:12:09 So we were using all of these different tricks and tips
0:12:11 and posting all of these different quotes
0:12:13 and creating all of these meme boxes
0:12:15 to get people interested.
0:12:18 One thing that helped a lot was I reached out
0:12:20 to the first 500 and say, how many of you ladies
0:12:23 would love to be a Live Richer Challenge leader?
0:12:24 And they were like, oh my gosh,
0:12:25 ’cause women love to be like a part
0:12:26 of like an exclusive group.
0:12:28 They’re like, I would, meanwhile, it meant nothing.
0:12:30 Like, there’s no such thing as a Live Richer Challenge leader.
0:12:31 I just made it up.
0:12:34 But as a result, I got my friend who was a designer
0:12:37 to create these meme boxes where it was their picture
0:12:40 and it says, I am a Live Richer Challenge leader
0:12:42 and the website at the bottom.
0:12:44 And the women loved them ’cause they were really pretty
0:12:47 and their job as a leader was to sign up
0:12:49 between 10 and 20 of their friends.
0:12:52 And so that helped significantly.
0:12:54 And then once a month, for like six months,
0:12:56 I would talk to the leaders on the phone
0:12:58 to see what was working, what was not working.
0:13:00 The leaders formed their own Facebook pages
0:13:02 to sign up their friends and get their friends excited
0:13:04 because the leaders, most of the leaders knew me personally.
0:13:06 – So initially, yeah, there was a personal connection.
0:13:07 – Exactly.
0:13:08 So they were just like, you know,
0:13:09 to tell their friends like, oh my God, I know Tiffany,
0:13:10 she’s awesome.
0:13:11 The challenge is gonna be great
0:13:13 because people had not experienced the challenge,
0:13:14 so it was a hard sell.
0:13:16 So that helped significantly.
0:13:17 And honestly, we didn’t use,
0:13:18 I didn’t even know how to do Facebook ads.
0:13:20 I didn’t spend any money on ads
0:13:22 for the first 20,000 women.
0:13:23 – This is like, you know, taking a page
0:13:25 out of the network marketing book,
0:13:29 except without really, you know, buy my SIE drink.
0:13:30 – It was.
0:13:32 And honestly, I didn’t know anything about like,
0:13:34 you know how like you have all the marketing guys online now.
0:13:37 I didn’t know anything about any of that.
0:13:40 All I knew was intrinsically what made people move.
0:13:42 One, being part of a community.
0:13:44 Two, we used a little bit of fear tactic.
0:13:46 Like you don’t want to be the old lady eating cat food.
0:13:48 Join the challenge, you know?
0:13:50 – More with Tiffany in just a moment,
0:13:52 including the one little tactic that has stuck with me
0:13:55 even eight years later, right after this.
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0:16:48 – Okay, so 60% of people don’t have enough for retirement.
0:16:50 One day join the challenge, next day don’t eat cat food.
0:16:53 – Yes, and then two, really to me what Tip did
0:16:55 was having the literature leaders sign up their friends.
0:16:59 Then two, what we did is in the beginning of the challenge,
0:17:02 one of the tasks were to get an accountability partner,
0:17:04 ask your friend, your coworker, your mom,
0:17:06 your sister, your someone to do the challenge with you
0:17:08 as she had to sign up too.
0:17:09 – Okay, so you’re getting like two for one?
0:17:12 – Yeah, so we said, and plus it was free,
0:17:14 but that helps significantly too.
0:17:16 So people started, and then once we kind of tipped over,
0:17:19 I think once we hit like 5,000,
0:17:21 it started to roll a little bit faster
0:17:23 because we were posting the numbers like,
0:17:24 every time we hit a big number,
0:17:26 like 5,000 women have signed up for the challenge.
0:17:27 What are you waiting for?
0:17:30 I would post it across all my social media platforms.
0:17:32 And then women would be like, oh my God, 5,000,
0:17:34 it can’t be a scam if all of these people have signed up.
0:17:36 – Yeah, the safety of numbers, right?
0:17:38 – And then what I would do was for the women
0:17:41 that did sign up, like every two weeks,
0:17:44 I would send like a awesome resource,
0:17:45 so that way they wouldn’t forget
0:17:46 that the challenge was starting.
0:17:47 So like every two weeks I’d be like,
0:17:49 hey, here’s this great website I like.
0:17:51 You know, challenge is starting in six months.
0:17:53 Hey, this is great book I’m reading.
0:17:54 Challenge is starting in six months.
0:17:56 Don’t forget to ask your mom,
0:17:57 your sister, your cousin, your friend.
0:18:01 So I kept them engaged because I started collecting people
0:18:03 a full six to eight months
0:18:05 before we actually launched the challenge.
0:18:05 – That’s a good point.
0:18:07 So this is kind of a start and stop thing.
0:18:11 It only goes for five weeks or a five week period
0:18:12 where this content is being delivered.
0:18:16 So the rest of the time is kind of like in anticipation.
0:18:18 And what happens after the fact?
0:18:19 Like, can you go through it again?
0:18:22 Or how do you engage those people?
0:18:23 If somebody wants to join in the middle,
0:18:28 like if it’s all kind of on an automated delivery system,
0:18:29 theoretically they could,
0:18:30 but like you want everybody going through
0:18:32 like the same tasks at the same time.
0:18:33 Well, in the beginning,
0:18:35 it was just my intention to do this one time.
0:18:36 Like wham, bam, thank you, ma’am.
0:18:37 I’m like, all right, we’re done.
0:18:40 And then the women were like, no, where are you going?
0:18:42 We want, like I want to do it again.
0:18:44 And I was just like, okay.
0:18:45 And so that’s when I was like,
0:18:47 – Was it the same content like the second time around?
0:18:51 – So I recognize that some women started late
0:18:53 or there was some Johnny come lately, you know?
0:18:55 Like, oh, my sister told me it was awesome.
0:18:56 Is it too late?
0:18:57 So it took me a month,
0:18:59 but I automated, yes, the same content.
0:19:01 And then we, you could just sign up for it.
0:19:03 And it would run throughout the year.
0:19:05 And then what I did was I said, you know what?
0:19:07 Let’s do a new challenge every year.
0:19:10 So 2015 was the first challenge
0:19:11 and we automated it
0:19:14 after the collective community did it in January,
0:19:16 by March, anyone could join.
0:19:19 And then by like November, I turned it off.
0:19:20 And then we started collecting people
0:19:22 for the 2016 challenge,
0:19:23 which was the savings edition,
0:19:25 which is just about savings.
0:19:27 And so we ran that in January.
0:19:29 And then as soon as it finished in February,
0:19:30 we turned it on automatic.
0:19:33 So right now that’s automated.
0:19:35 So you can join the savings edition challenge
0:19:37 or you can join the first initial challenge,
0:19:40 which covers budgeting, saving, credit, debt,
0:19:42 insurance, investing, money, mindset.
0:19:44 It covers like basically everything, you know?
0:19:47 And so both of those you can sign up for it
0:19:49 and you’ll get those automatic emails in your inbox
0:19:51 and you can do it whatever you want.
0:19:53 And so when I got the first 10,000 women,
0:19:55 those are the women who had signed up
0:19:56 by the time we started.
0:19:58 The other 10,000 came throughout the year
0:20:00 through the automated challenge.
0:20:01 If I want to sign up today, I could
0:20:03 and it would be no effort on your part.
0:20:04 Like it would be automated delivery.
0:20:05 – To automated delivery.
0:20:07 And then you would just like,
0:20:09 you would still get the same content as everybody else,
0:20:11 but automated delivery and the group still runs.
0:20:13 So now the group has shifted away
0:20:15 from being just about the challenge.
0:20:17 And now it’s just women helping women
0:20:18 with their financial lives.
0:20:21 So 24 hours a day, women post everything from,
0:20:22 somebody wrote the other day,
0:20:24 I’m so mad at my husband, I could throat punch him,
0:20:26 which I thought was hilarious.
0:20:28 She was like, he’s the worst spender.
0:20:29 He doesn’t know how to say, what can I do?
0:20:31 And so other women will give her advice,
0:20:33 which I thought was, so that’s what the group has become.
0:20:36 Like, hey, I’m buying a house, what do I do?
0:20:38 Or whoop, whoop, I bought a car
0:20:40 with the money that I saved from the challenge.
0:20:41 What are you guys up to?
0:20:42 So it’s just a support group
0:20:44 for women working on their money.
0:20:46 – What’s your time investment in, you know, moderating?
0:20:50 I mean, any group that size is going to attract spammers.
0:20:51 – Yes, for sure.
0:20:53 So one thing we do do is in the beginning,
0:20:54 you could just join.
0:20:57 Now, if someone added you, we would add you.
0:20:59 So now we have some rules that one,
0:21:00 you can’t be added by someone else.
0:21:03 So if it says Nick Loper added Dave,
0:21:05 we ignore those and we delete those requests.
0:21:06 Dave has to add himself.
0:21:08 So that helps because it’s like someone
0:21:10 has chosen to be here.
0:21:12 Two, it’s difficult to just be added to the group.
0:21:15 So one way to be added or one way to find us
0:21:18 is you go through the challenge and then you get an invite.
0:21:20 And then also on the challenge page,
0:21:23 there’s actually a little link that says like, join the forum.
0:21:25 And when you click the link, it’s actually a survey
0:21:27 that kind of runs you through the group rules
0:21:28 before you join.
0:21:30 So I have about 12 admins.
0:21:31 I don’t heavily admin the group
0:21:33 because they pretty much take care.
0:21:36 I just kind of go in and give virtual high fives
0:21:38 and answer some basic questions.
0:21:40 But we’ve got a ton of financial experts in there
0:21:42 that just like willingly share.
0:21:44 So I don’t have to be like, you know,
0:21:46 in the beginning though, it was like hours and hours.
0:21:48 But now, you know, I might spend,
0:21:50 I want to say maybe an hour a day,
0:21:51 depending like sometimes I’m having fun
0:21:53 and I spend a ton of time
0:21:55 and some days I don’t make it to the group at all.
0:21:56 – Yeah, it’s been kind of, you know,
0:21:58 I was hesitant to start the Cyanosl Nation Facebook group
0:22:00 for kind of that same feeling.
0:22:02 I don’t want another thing to manage and moderate
0:22:03 and create content for,
0:22:06 but it’s like, it’s kind of turned into this cool community
0:22:08 on its own where people are answering,
0:22:10 asking and answering questions without my involvement.
0:22:12 And I so far knock on wood, like, you know,
0:22:14 do very little moderating.
0:22:16 Like only, you know, maybe I delete one post a week
0:22:18 or something or say, hey, you know,
0:22:19 thanks for sharing that.
0:22:20 But like, can you give us a little more,
0:22:22 give us a little more meat of like,
0:22:24 what can we take away from this experience or something?
0:22:25 This is all awesome.
0:22:28 – My question for you is you’re giving it all away for free.
0:22:31 How does this help you pay the bills?
0:22:33 I know you still have like living expenses
0:22:34 and then I’ve turned this into a business.
0:22:37 So you want to talk about what that has turned into
0:22:38 as a result of this?
0:22:40 – Yeah, honestly, surprisingly, I’m not gonna lie.
0:22:41 We make a lot.
0:22:43 We make about a half a million dollars a year.
0:22:44 I know, right?
0:22:45 Sometimes I’m like–
0:22:46 – Give it away for free.
0:22:47 – Yeah, I know.
0:22:48 Honestly, and here’s how.
0:22:52 So one, I use my social influence to flex on social media.
0:22:55 So basically, you know, I’ll share like,
0:22:57 oh, like we’ve got 10,000 women doing this
0:22:59 and we’re saved 17 million dollars.
0:23:03 And so companies hired me to speak to teach their audiences.
0:23:04 So that’s one way.
0:23:07 So last year, my speaking and like book sales.
0:23:10 So even though the literature challenge
0:23:11 is actually free online,
0:23:13 yo, they kick button book sales.
0:23:15 Even though I say it on the site,
0:23:17 like because what I do is every day,
0:23:20 the task on my blog post at the bottom, it says,
0:23:23 hey, do you want to do the same challenge,
0:23:26 but in book form, maybe you’re not a computer person
0:23:27 buy the book here.
0:23:29 It’s at the bottom of every single day.
0:23:29 So for three weeks,
0:23:31 you’re seeing that little picture of the book
0:23:33 and it says that and people buy the book
0:23:35 even though they know, yo, it’s free online.
0:23:36 I’m doing it for free.
0:23:37 And that’s where I’m seeing this link.
0:23:39 And that’s the only way I advertise the books.
0:23:42 People buy like the book, like just this month alone,
0:23:44 we sold well over a thousand books this month alone.
0:23:45 – Wow.
0:23:46 – And so that’s one.
0:23:49 Two, like I said, speaking for different companies.
0:23:50 Colleges hire me.
0:23:51 Like I work with Prudential.
0:23:53 I just signed an influencer contract with Ford today.
0:23:54 – Oh wow.
0:23:55 I used to work in Ford.
0:23:56 – Really?
0:23:57 I’m excited.
0:23:58 They sent me a car.
0:23:58 I was like, okay, we can do this.
0:23:59 – What?
0:24:00 – I know.
0:24:01 – Jeez.
0:24:03 – And so, but because that happens when
0:24:07 because I’m treating my audience well, they come,
0:24:09 they stay and they’re interactive.
0:24:12 And as a result, companies want to get close to that.
0:24:13 So they pay.
0:24:14 And so last year, like I said,
0:24:15 so last year in speaking and in book sales,
0:24:17 I made about $150,000.
0:24:20 And then this year, we launched the Live Richer Academy.
0:24:22 So this will be the first time
0:24:24 that we really charge the individual.
0:24:26 So the Academy, the way it works is that
0:24:29 it’s a monthly fee and it’s the next level.
0:24:32 The challenge is basic financial education.
0:24:34 The Academy, I’ve gotten all these financial experts
0:24:36 from around the country to come
0:24:38 and teach a course that’s their expertise.
0:24:40 So we have a tax lady.
0:24:41 We’ve got a student loan lady.
0:24:43 You know, we’ve got people that that’s not my expertise.
0:24:45 And it costs $12.99 a month.
0:24:48 At first it was $9.99 a month when we first opened in March.
0:24:50 And now it’s $12.99 a month.
0:24:53 And we already have over 4,000 students.
0:24:55 So just do the math for 10 bucks.
0:24:57 4,000 students, that’s $40,000 a month.
0:25:00 – That’s a pretty serious, pretty serious continuity business
0:25:01 and membership business.
0:25:02 – Exactly, on top of that.
0:25:05 But that came from years of giving and giving and giving.
0:25:07 I was nervous to say, hey, audience,
0:25:08 would you pay for more?
0:25:09 Because they’re not used to paying.
0:25:11 And they were like, ah, okay.
0:25:12 And then I do affiliate links,
0:25:15 but I’m always very transparent about
0:25:16 the three or four things I actually really like.
0:25:20 Like I love digit, I love Ebates, I love credit karma.
0:25:22 So I didn’t even know that they had affiliates.
0:25:23 In the first challenge,
0:25:25 I was mentioning all of these great resources,
0:25:26 but I didn’t have a link
0:25:28 ’cause I didn’t know anything about affiliates.
0:25:29 And then a friend of mine was like,
0:25:31 why are you not making money off these suggestions?
0:25:33 I’m like, well, how do you do that?
0:25:34 And he was like, these companies have affiliate links.
0:25:36 You’re already mentioning them because you use them
0:25:37 and you love them.
0:25:38 Throw your link in there.
0:25:40 And I was like, it can’t be that much money.
0:25:40 What?
0:25:42 This year alone in affiliate money,
0:25:44 I think I probably made about $60,000 in affiliate money.
0:25:45 – It can add up.
0:25:46 – Yeah.
0:25:49 And so like all of these things combined,
0:25:52 that’s why I said like, this year at minimum,
0:25:53 we’ll take in about half a million.
0:25:56 By next year, I really at the rate that the academy
0:25:58 is growing ’cause we just opened a March
0:26:00 that will be about a million dollar a year business
0:26:01 by next year.
0:26:02 – Yeah, okay.
0:26:03 So we’re recording middle of June.
0:26:04 So it’s only three months old.
0:26:05 – Yeah.
0:26:06 And we’re already making basically like,
0:26:09 what is 40,000 times 12?
0:26:11 – Yeah, like you said, 40 grand or 50, almost 50.
0:26:14 So, and it’s easy to look at that and say,
0:26:15 wow, that’s crazy, I wanna do the same thing.
0:26:18 But it’s like, we kind of not glossed over,
0:26:21 but well, you know, we put in some time for four, five years
0:26:23 leading up to this to build, you know,
0:26:25 it’s that whole no like and trust pyramid
0:26:28 where, you know, you’ve been given this value away
0:26:31 for quite a while, but still really, really inspiring.
0:26:33 What do you see as like the next step
0:26:36 outside of the academy, outside of the speaking things?
0:26:38 Like you’re doing keynote stuff.
0:26:39 Where is this thing going?
0:26:41 – Yeah, so I do do some keynote stuff,
0:26:43 but I was asking myself that the other day
0:26:45 ’cause you know, you kind of like, ooh,
0:26:46 I remember my first goal was,
0:26:49 if I can make $500 a month, I’ll be golden.
0:26:50 You know?
0:26:51 – I’ve been there, I’ve been there.
0:26:53 – You know, and then you’re like, oh, like,
0:26:55 I mean, the academy has blown everything out of the world.
0:26:56 I’m not even gonna lie.
0:26:58 It’s not even, there’s no precedent.
0:27:00 I mean, just last year, like we’ve quadrupled this year.
0:27:03 So this, I just, I feel like honestly,
0:27:05 I just wanna do good work.
0:27:06 I’m writing a children’s book
0:27:07 since I used to be a preschool teacher.
0:27:09 I feel like there’s a lack of fun,
0:27:11 financial education materials for kids.
0:27:12 So I’m writing a children’s book.
0:27:13 And I think it would be so awesome
0:27:15 if like I have a main character in the book
0:27:17 and I want her to become like the door of the explorer,
0:27:20 but for money and kids like on Nickelodeon somewhere.
0:27:22 So that would be awesome.
0:27:24 And then like we’re opening these things
0:27:25 called dream catcher chapters.
0:27:27 So the women, which is so awesome,
0:27:31 they’ve actually started meeting monthly offline.
0:27:32 So there’s like a, there’s a New York group.
0:27:33 There’s a St. Louis group.
0:27:35 There’s a Texas group that’s 500 women strong.
0:27:37 And I’m like, wait, you guys are meeting without me?
0:27:38 What the heck?
0:27:39 How did this happen?
0:27:40 And so we’re gonna make it official.
0:27:43 So we’re gonna roll out dream catcher chapters.
0:27:45 Yeah, the dream catcher, so that’s the name of our tribe.
0:27:47 They named themselves after the name of the group,
0:27:48 dream catchers.
0:27:50 And the other day they were like, yo, we want a T-shirt.
0:27:52 And I was like, yeah, nah, I don’t really feel like it.
0:27:53 They were like, one lady was like,
0:27:55 if you don’t make a T-shirt, I’m making a T-shirt.
0:27:56 And that’s like, all right.
0:27:58 And so I put up like a design
0:28:00 and I was like, well, pick which one you guys like.
0:28:03 Over 4,000 people were like, we like this one.
0:28:05 And I’m like, wait, 4,000 times,
0:28:08 let’s just say I make a T-shirt and it’s 10 bucks profit.
0:28:09 That’s crazy.
0:28:10 And I didn’t even want to make it to,
0:28:11 not that I didn’t want to make a T-shirt,
0:28:14 but I don’t like putting out chachis just to put it out.
0:28:15 Yeah, so they’re asking for it.
0:28:16 Exactly.
0:28:17 So that’s what I’ve learned.
0:28:20 I’ve learned that I deliver what’s requested
0:28:23 and you don’t have to wonder if it’s gonna do well or not.
0:28:25 So yeah, there’s just all of these different streams
0:28:26 of income.
0:28:27 I don’t know what the end goal is.
0:28:30 The end goal is just to do dope work and make good money.
0:28:31 I’m with you.
0:28:33 Like, I don’t know, you know, I could retire tomorrow
0:28:35 and you know, what would the day look like?
0:28:36 But you’ll probably be doing the same thing
0:28:37 ’cause I love doing it.
0:28:40 It sounds like you’re kind of in the same boat.
0:28:41 So that’s really, really cool.
0:28:42 I’m curious.
0:28:43 Oh, I’m just on the membership site.
0:28:46 One of the challenges that always comes up is like,
0:28:48 well, how do I keep people in there?
0:28:49 How do people engage?
0:28:52 And so are you gonna be constantly trying to create
0:28:56 new, like exclusive content for just for that group?
0:28:58 So yeah, so the way it took, like, I’m not gonna lie.
0:29:00 This is how, you know, people really love you.
0:29:02 So when we first opened the membership site in March,
0:29:03 it totally sucked.
0:29:05 I was like, what the hell is this?
0:29:06 And people signed up.
0:29:08 And I remember we were like constantly like,
0:29:09 I thought it was awesome.
0:29:10 And so people were kind of in there.
0:29:12 And they were like, what?
0:29:14 ‘Cause it was prerecorded.
0:29:17 And they kind of ran through all of the courses so quickly.
0:29:19 And so I was like, wait, so how do I keep people engaged?
0:29:22 It took forever just to take these first 10 classes.
0:29:24 And it cost a ton of money.
0:29:26 And I was like, it’s gonna eat up all of our profits.
0:29:29 So what I did was I said, okay,
0:29:31 we started thinking of other ways to deliver.
0:29:33 So one of the things we do is we have instructors
0:29:34 now teach live.
0:29:35 I have a private YouTube channel.
0:29:39 And then I upload or I embed the video
0:29:40 into the actual Academy.
0:29:43 So once a week, you can take this live course.
0:29:45 Like right now, of course that’s happening
0:29:47 is real estate investment for beginners.
0:29:50 And so Christina teaches on Tuesday nights at seven.
0:29:52 And we haven’t had a started business course.
0:29:55 Shike teaches Wednesday nights at eight for three weeks.
0:29:57 And so that keeps people going.
0:29:58 And then every single Sunday,
0:30:00 we have an ask the expert series
0:30:04 where I find one of my dope friends to come on for a Q&A
0:30:07 about like their particular financial expertise.
0:30:09 And so I don’t have to teach the other courses,
0:30:12 but on Sundays, I do like, you know,
0:30:14 that’s kind of like where I have to invest the time.
0:30:15 It’s like on Sundays for an hour,
0:30:18 I sit and I do the Q&A and people watch live.
0:30:20 So that keeps people interested because you know,
0:30:22 there’s gonna be a new course
0:30:24 that’s gonna roll out every month or so.
0:30:26 And then every Sunday is gonna be new material.
0:30:27 So that’s what keeps them going.
0:30:29 And we have a private Facebook group
0:30:30 specifically for the Academy.
0:30:31 – Sure, well, if you need some help,
0:30:33 people have questions about side hustling.
0:30:34 You know, I’m happy to help out.
0:30:35 – No, I would love to.
0:30:37 That’s one of the biggest requests, so for sure.
0:30:38 – Absolutely.
0:30:40 Tiffany, this has been just really eye-opening stuff,
0:30:42 like an incredible movement that she built.
0:30:45 Check Tiffany out at thebudgetnista.com.
0:30:47 You find all the information about the literature challenge
0:30:49 over there, everything she’s got going on.
0:30:50 Just wanna say thank you for joining me
0:30:52 and let’s wrap this thing up
0:30:55 with your number one tip for side hustle nation.
0:30:57 – Build your tribe now.
0:30:59 I wish I wouldn’t have waited so long
0:31:02 because we’d be like probably a quarter of a million by now.
0:31:04 Start now, I don’t care if you have 10 people.
0:31:08 Build your tribe, treat them awesome, and give, give, give.
0:31:08 – Love it.
0:31:09 Thank you so much, Tiffany.
0:31:10 We’ll catch up with you soon.
0:31:11 – Thank you.
0:31:12 (upbeat music)
0:31:13 – All right, hopefully this chat with Tiffany
0:31:15 has your gears turning on.
0:31:17 What kind of free challenge you can host
0:31:19 to grow and connect with your audience?
0:31:20 I know she’s got me thinking about
0:31:22 how I can borrow her strategy there.
0:31:25 So my top takeaways from this chat, number one,
0:31:28 it starts with your network and it snowballs out from there.
0:31:30 I know this is a common theme,
0:31:32 but strengthening your relationship
0:31:34 is something you work on regardless
0:31:36 of whether or not you have a business today.
0:31:39 Like when people ask, oh, how can I get guests
0:31:41 for my podcast, it’s the same answer.
0:31:42 Like it starts with your network
0:31:43 and it spiders out from there.
0:31:44 How do I get freelance clients?
0:31:47 It starts with your network and it spiders out from there.
0:31:49 So I know you’ve heard me say that over and over again,
0:31:50 but I think it’s true.
0:31:52 Your network really is your net worth
0:31:53 and that’s how it started for Tiffany.
0:31:54 That’s how it started for me
0:31:56 and that’s how it started for just about everybody.
0:31:57 I can think of.
0:32:00 So number two, give people tangible results.
0:32:04 She gave the example of a step-by-step money saving script
0:32:05 and that’s the kind of thing
0:32:07 people can immediately take action on
0:32:09 like following a recipe, step-by-step-by-step.
0:32:10 And when they see it work,
0:32:12 they’re motivated to keep paying attention
0:32:14 and help you spread the word.
0:32:17 Takeaway number three, figure it out as you go.
0:32:19 This thing started with what Tiffany knew,
0:32:22 personal finance, including admittedly her successes
0:32:24 and her failures along the way,
0:32:26 but she didn’t know anything about online business,
0:32:28 but she figured it out one step at a time
0:32:30 and that’s what we all have to do.
0:32:33 Like I’m still figuring it out as I go.
0:32:36 So be sure to head over to sidehustlemation.com/livericher,
0:32:39 all one word, all of the budget nieces,
0:32:41 top tips from this conversation.
0:32:43 I wanna thank you guys so much for tuning in this week.
0:32:45 Until next time, let’s go out there,
0:32:46 make something happen and I’ll catch you
0:32:49 in the next edition of the “Sign Hustle” show.
0:32:49 Hustle on.

0:00:01 (upbeat music)
0:00:04 All right, this is 10 scary good side hustles
0:00:05 that make real money.
0:00:07 What’s up, what’s up, Nick Lover here.
0:00:08 Welcome to the “Side Hustle Show”
0:00:11 because your nine to five may make you a living,
0:00:13 but your five to nine makes you alive.
0:00:14 Happy Halloween to you.
0:00:16 This is a fantastic holiday.
0:00:17 In the words of Greg Barron,
0:00:20 he teaches kids some really valuable life skills.
0:00:21 You get dressed, you go to work,
0:00:23 you get paid in candy.
0:00:26 So today we’ve got 10 scary good side hustles,
0:00:28 some more Halloween related than others.
0:00:31 The man to help me out is a man of many side hustles.
0:00:34 You know him as the host of the “Nitch Pursuits” podcast
0:00:37 from 201creative.com, Jared Bauman.
0:00:38 Welcome to the “Side Hustle Show.”
0:00:40 – Hey, Nick, this is gonna be really fun.
0:00:42 What a fun theme that we have here
0:00:44 and I love the list and the running or we’re gonna be going
0:00:46 through in terms of some of these really cool side hustles.
0:00:47 – Well, excited as well.
0:00:50 I’m a longtime “Nitch Pursuits” listener
0:00:51 and I feel like it’s a long time coming
0:00:52 to have you on the show
0:00:54 and obviously a lot of overlap between the two audiences.
0:00:56 So I know we’ll have lots of listeners
0:00:57 familiar with Jared as well.
0:01:00 I want to tee this off with a side hustle
0:01:03 that came across my desk from Ebay’s Facts this year
0:01:07 and the headline is $2,000 a month reacting to horror movies.
0:01:09 And so this is Catherine Fogle’s YouTube channel.
0:01:11 It’s called Cat Watches Horror Movies.
0:01:12 At the time of this recording,
0:01:15 she’s over 80,000 subscribers,
0:01:16 started a little over two years ago.
0:01:18 So she’s two years deep into this,
0:01:20 I assume, side hustle project.
0:01:23 And some of her videos, which is like the headline is like,
0:01:24 you know, I’m freaked out by horror movies.
0:01:25 Let’s watch them together.
0:01:28 And it’s just her reacting to these for the first time
0:01:31 and screaming and just getting, getting scared.
0:01:32 Are you a horror movie fan?
0:01:33 I like cannot do horror movies.
0:01:35 – No, no, I was going to say, like,
0:01:37 I have a funny story with my girlfriend in college
0:01:38 and we were going to see, I think the ring
0:01:39 and we were on our way.
0:01:41 I looked, I finally was like,
0:01:42 I don’t even like horror movies, what are we doing?
0:01:43 And she was like, I don’t either.
0:01:45 So I love this idea because this is the only way
0:01:46 I would really watch a horror movie is
0:01:48 but it’s with somebody like this
0:01:49 kind of having fun with it.
0:01:52 – Yeah, I remember seeing like Blair Witch in high school
0:01:54 and then, you know, probably the next week
0:01:56 going on a 50 mile backpacking trip
0:01:58 and just it was not, I was not in a good place.
0:01:59 So I can’t do horror movies.
0:02:01 Like give me a comedy any day of the week.
0:02:04 But so some of her videos, like she’s got her reacting
0:02:07 to some of these older classic horror movies
0:02:10 like Exorcist and Predator and Aliens,
0:02:11 Silence of the Lambs.
0:02:14 Like these have between 150,000 views and 200,000 views.
0:02:17 And so you can plug the, you can plug the channel,
0:02:19 you plug any YouTube channel into social blade
0:02:20 and it’ll estimate the earnings.
0:02:21 And like, depending on the niche,
0:02:24 there’s a huge variety in YouTube RPMs, right?
0:02:26 But it says up to $2,000 a month
0:02:30 just in YouTube ad revenue from Catwatches Horror Movies.
0:02:32 Plus she’s got a Patreon campaign
0:02:34 or Patreon, you know, support cat for this
0:02:36 with almost 300 paying members
0:02:38 anywhere from three to $10 a month.
0:02:40 And you get, you know, special bonus footage
0:02:41 or you get inside access.
0:02:42 I don’t know what their different tiers are
0:02:45 but pretty well monetized for a side hustle
0:02:46 that’s only a couple of years deep.
0:02:47 – I was blown away in your article
0:02:49 by how many people are paying her.
0:02:50 I think she said her most popular tier
0:02:52 is at $10 a month.
0:02:53 And I’m thinking like, what do you get for $10 a month?
0:02:56 I’m already getting what I need by watching this.
0:02:58 And so that’s the power of creating a concept,
0:02:58 creating an idea.
0:02:59 And then once it gets traction
0:03:02 there’s usually several layers that can go deeper than that.
0:03:03 This is also fun.
0:03:05 I don’t know if you remember this is gonna date me a bit
0:03:07 but this is also a great example of taking a model
0:03:09 that already has been proven to work.
0:03:11 I remember in high school and college, I think,
0:03:14 watching something called Mystery Science Theater.
0:03:15 And it was a couple of guys
0:03:18 who would just watch these old movies that were bad.
0:03:19 That was a central premise.
0:03:21 They were like really poorly produced
0:03:23 or terrible storylines or really bad acting.
0:03:24 They were just bad movies
0:03:26 and they would just joke through the whole thing.
0:03:28 And that was, I mean, even before the day of YouTube
0:03:29 but they were incredibly popular
0:03:31 and they did this to a lot of movies
0:03:33 in a different way as she’s putting her own spin
0:03:35 on something that was done and successful 20 years ago.
0:03:36 – Yeah, exactly.
0:03:38 It goes back to the Pivot and Jam framework
0:03:40 from the Tropical MBA guys.
0:03:42 You take somebody else’s idea, rip it off,
0:03:44 pivot it to a new niche, a new idea,
0:03:46 and then jam, go to town and do your thing
0:03:48 and see if you can get a following,
0:03:49 see if you can get some traction with that.
0:03:53 This genre of reaction videos is a tried and true thing.
0:03:54 We saw it during the pandemic.
0:03:58 Like lawyer reacts to stimulus package bill
0:04:01 or writer reacts to this opening line of some novel
0:04:04 by my friend, Graham Baldwin, it runs the speaker lab.
0:04:07 And it was him reacting to these famous TED talks and stuff.
0:04:10 So a formula that can work in a lot of different niches.
0:04:13 – Yeah, it reminds me of like, my nephew is young
0:04:15 and he will watch on YouTube people playing a game
0:04:18 to both learn but actually it’s like a community event,
0:04:22 watching on YouTube or live playing the game.
0:04:26 So like, this concept exists in so many different areas.
0:04:28 It’s kind of, she’s really made a niche out of it.
0:04:30 – All right, next up, podcast reactions.
0:04:33 We don’t watch, listen to this podcast with the Winnick.
0:04:34 Maybe that’s my next side hustle,
0:04:36 but that’s the first one on this list.
0:04:37 Making a couple of grand a month,
0:04:40 probably more when you layer on both the Patreon
0:04:44 and the AdSense from Google views, watching horror movies.
0:04:45 So there’s a side hustle for you.
0:04:47 Maybe you pivot that to your own niche.
0:04:48 – And she doesn’t even like them.
0:04:50 She doesn’t even like horror movies.
0:04:52 – All right, what’s next on your list here?
0:04:53 What else have we got?
0:04:55 – Yeah, so next up is pumpkin carving.
0:04:57 I mean, it is a Halloween here.
0:04:59 So why would we not at least jump into something
0:05:01 specific to the Halloween holiday itself?
0:05:04 And this is Mark, Evan and Chris Soria.
0:05:08 And they started ManicPumpkinCarvers.com.
0:05:11 And basically they carve pumpkins for you.
0:05:14 And obviously it’s a very seasonal business.
0:05:15 Extremely seasonal.
0:05:17 And we’ll get into some of the other things
0:05:17 that are a little bit seasonal.
0:05:20 Like this reminds me of Christmas lights.
0:05:22 You always see the signs as you’re driving your neighborhood
0:05:23 during the Christmas season.
0:05:25 Someone who’ll come out and hang your Christmas lights for you.
0:05:27 But this business, they basically carve pumpkins.
0:05:30 And I mean, I was shocked by how much money
0:05:31 that they’re able to make per pumpkin.
0:05:33 Now, obviously they do a really good job.
0:05:34 They’re pretty good at it.
0:05:36 They’re charging like three figures over $100,
0:05:38 high $100 for some of these.
0:05:40 And they’re making a pretty good side hustle income.
0:05:43 – Yeah, this is ManiacPumpkinCarvers.com.
0:05:45 And this truly artworks of art.
0:05:47 Like some of the stuff that they’re able to create
0:05:48 is genuinely impressive.
0:05:50 And it’s somewhat depressing
0:05:52 that it’s on such a temporary medium.
0:05:53 Like, okay, we can capture a picture of it,
0:05:56 but like next month this pumpkin is gonna rot away.
0:05:59 But $150 to $700 per pumpkin.
0:06:01 And according to Side Hustle School,
0:06:04 they’re doing 500 to 1,000 pumpkins per season.
0:06:07 And a lot of these are gonna be corporate clients,
0:06:08 weddings, special events,
0:06:09 like people who have the budget
0:06:12 to spend up to $700 for a custom pumpkin.
0:06:14 But that pencils out or estimates out
0:06:17 to be over $100,000, maybe $150,000
0:06:19 for a very seasonal business.
0:06:22 And I’ve got to imagine that either some other job
0:06:24 or some other source of income going on
0:06:25 the rest of the year, but like, hey,
0:06:27 you know, over the course of eight weeks
0:06:30 to cash in 100 grand doing pumpkin art,
0:06:32 if that’s something you love to do.
0:06:33 I was really impressed with that one.
0:06:35 – I mean, you think that obviously you need to be
0:06:38 in an area, I mean, they’re in Brooklyn, I think I saw.
0:06:39 So, you know, they can probably service
0:06:40 the greater New York metropolitan area.
0:06:42 That probably helps them get access to it.
0:06:44 Like you said, corporate clients and that sort of thing.
0:06:47 But I mean, it’s also seemed somewhat scalable, you know,
0:06:50 you got to find some people who are good pumpkin carvers
0:06:51 and you can kind of scale up.
0:06:53 I’m sure they’re probably not carving 1,000 pumpkins,
0:06:55 you know, the weekend of Halloween.
0:06:56 I’m assuming that by the way,
0:06:58 but it is interesting to think that, you know,
0:06:59 it’s actually got some scale
0:07:01 that you could build into it if you really wanted to.
0:07:05 – Any other food related or like this temporary art thing
0:07:09 for anything I see people will do like ice sculptures
0:07:12 or where it’s, you know, it’s built just for this event.
0:07:14 You know, I guess of like a fancy cake decorating
0:07:15 type of thing.
0:07:18 Like maybe these guys have a corner on the pumpkin market.
0:07:20 Like, is there another niche
0:07:21 where you think this might work well?
0:07:21 – Yeah, you know, it’s interesting
0:07:22 if you could bring it up.
0:07:26 My father-in-law ran it for 40 years, was an ice carver.
0:07:27 That was his business.
0:07:28 – Okay, wow.
0:07:29 – So funny you brought that up.
0:07:31 And so, yeah, he would get hired
0:07:34 for a lot of the types of things you just talked about.
0:07:36 And he would make ice carvings
0:07:38 of a whole different variety of things.
0:07:41 So he would do Eiffel towers for French themed parties.
0:07:44 He would do Statue of Liberty for a New York themed party.
0:07:45 He would, so there’s a lot of themed parties
0:07:47 that aren’t just Halloween related.
0:07:49 This is a time of year where there’s parties for it.
0:07:50 But there’s every time of year,
0:07:52 he would do great Gatsby themed parties
0:07:53 and he would build ice sculptures for that.
0:07:55 So just leaning into the whole theme idea.
0:07:56 You know, we got the fall,
0:07:57 we got the pumpkin, we got the Halloween,
0:07:59 but these themes apply throughout every holiday
0:08:00 and every year.
0:08:01 – Yes, and it’s just an example of like,
0:08:03 well, here’s a skill that I have
0:08:06 that I probably never would have thought
0:08:07 anybody would pay money for.
0:08:10 Like, it’s just a good old time to carve pumpkins.
0:08:11 And like, hey, I got pretty good at this.
0:08:13 And then turning, like figuring out how to monetize that.
0:08:15 Like that’s kind of inspiring, pretty creative.
0:08:17 Now, if you’re looking for a little bit of guidance
0:08:19 on, well, what skills do I have?
0:08:21 What could I turn into a side hustle?
0:08:23 I want to invite you to take our two minute quiz
0:08:25 at sidehustlenation.com/quiz.
0:08:26 And then based on your answers,
0:08:29 I’ll make some recommendations on what business models
0:08:31 or side hustles might be the best fit for you.
0:08:34 Now, the third one on this list is kind of a creepy,
0:08:37 crawly one, and this is Jeff Neal
0:08:40 who is running the critterdepot.com.
0:08:42 This is a cricket breeding.
0:08:44 And I think e-commerce business,
0:08:49 he sells live crickets to primarily reptile owners,
0:08:52 like people who need crickets to feed their other pets.
0:08:55 And he says average, he’s been doing it for several years,
0:08:58 average annual profits, $30,000 on the side from his day job.
0:09:01 Crickets, apparently super easy to breed, fast to breed.
0:09:03 And then just trying to figure out the shipping regulations
0:09:06 about selling live insects on the internet.
0:09:07 – This one definitely threw me off.
0:09:09 It feels like in our modern era,
0:09:12 wow, side hustling your way with crickets.
0:09:13 But it makes sense.
0:09:14 So many people have pets.
0:09:16 I mean, in my agency, we do work with some veterinarians.
0:09:19 And so I know for a fact that they call them the exotics,
0:09:20 right?
0:09:22 The exotic animals, not the cat, the dog, the bird,
0:09:23 but all these other like,
0:09:25 so there is a good collection of people
0:09:26 that have these types of animals.
0:09:28 – And you gotta find food for it.
0:09:30 Sounds like he blew up during COVID
0:09:33 when maybe the local pet stores weren’t open
0:09:34 or they weren’t, I don’t know what it was,
0:09:36 but he has done well with it.
0:09:38 – Said he has a bearded dragon.
0:09:39 I was kind of intrigued.
0:09:41 Didn’t know you could have a pet bearded dragon.
0:09:44 – Yeah, I wanna say we had somebody on the show,
0:09:46 or somebody in the community
0:09:49 who had like a bearded dragon niche site early on,
0:09:51 all about taking care of these.
0:09:54 ‘Cause it’s, you find a million one dog sites
0:09:56 and probably a site for every specific breed.
0:09:58 But okay, I’m gonna have to go a little more niche
0:10:01 if I wanna find something maybe a little bit less competitive
0:10:02 on that keyword research there.
0:10:04 Growing up, I had a pet frog as a kid.
0:10:06 As the story goes, I was fairly young.
0:10:08 We were a late, you know, kind of nearby
0:10:10 and there were all these tadpoles.
0:10:12 And I said, “Dad, can I take a tadpole home?”
0:10:13 And he raised it as a frog.
0:10:14 And he’s like, “Yeah, if you catch one,
0:10:15 we can take it home.”
0:10:16 Thinking I’d never catch one.
0:10:18 I don’t know how, that was my day to buy a lottery ticket.
0:10:19 I caught a tadpole.
0:10:20 – Okay.
0:10:22 – So we raised this tadpole up to being a frog
0:10:24 and then released him back into the same lake
0:10:24 like six months later.
0:10:26 But we had to go down to the pet store
0:10:27 to buy crickets once in a while.
0:10:28 And I remember it being quite the process.
0:10:31 Now, marketing-wise, it sounds like Jeff is relying
0:10:33 on these like reptile forums,
0:10:34 like good old forum marketing.
0:10:36 Go where your customers already are.
0:10:37 Whether they’re hanging out in these bearded dragon forums
0:10:39 or other reptile forums.
0:10:41 And hey, you know, do you have a good cricket dealer?
0:10:43 If not, I’m your guy.
0:10:44 – I mean, it sounds like he really started
0:10:46 by solving his own problem.
0:10:48 And then he realized there was this need
0:10:49 because he was a part of that community.
0:10:50 And it’s a great way to look,
0:10:52 if you’re looking at what kind of side hustle
0:10:53 you might want to go into.
0:10:54 Like what problems do you have in your life
0:10:55 that you might have already solved
0:10:57 and don’t realize that other people have a need for it?
0:10:59 Or what problems do you have that maybe you could find
0:11:01 a solution for and then see if other people want it?
0:11:04 – What is kind of cool about this niche is, yeah,
0:11:06 there’s probably some initial crickets
0:11:07 that you’re going to have to buy.
0:11:10 And I guess feed, but after a while,
0:11:12 it becomes self-perpetuating, right?
0:11:13 It’s like they’re just going to keep making more.
0:11:16 And it’s like we had somebody who was doing like
0:11:19 plant propagation or selling, you know,
0:11:20 any types of those things where it’s like,
0:11:22 okay, I bought the seed once
0:11:24 and now it grows into this thing.
0:11:25 And then I cut off the limbs of it.
0:11:27 And then those re-propagate.
0:11:29 And it’s like, it’s almost this cool, like infinite loop
0:11:31 where almost zero cost of goods sold, you know,
0:11:33 the farther down the road that you get.
0:11:34 I thought that was really interesting.
0:11:36 – I’m thinking of like sourdough starter.
0:11:38 And like, you know, a lot of people like the home brew.
0:11:40 And like, you know, I know you have your starter for that.
0:11:42 And obviously not a, not very good at any of those things.
0:11:44 But to your point, like I got my mind thinking like,
0:11:45 this kind of almost self-perpetuates itself.
0:11:47 – Yeah, I think that’s one of those really exciting ones.
0:11:50 We had a guy in that last year who was selling
0:11:52 mushrooms out of maybe a spare bedroom.
0:11:55 I can’t imagine that that room smelled very good,
0:11:57 but it was, I wanna say 800 bucks a week
0:11:59 or something worth of, you know, mushrooms
0:12:01 to local restaurants and farmers markets.
0:12:03 And just keep it, keep it rolling.
0:12:04 – Amazing.
0:12:05 – All right.
0:12:08 So we’ll be back with more Halloween themed side hustles
0:12:10 with Jared or right after this.
0:12:14 Being an entrepreneur and being able to work remotely
0:12:16 definitely has its perks.
0:12:19 I’ve recorded podcasts everywhere from Vietnam to Italy,
0:12:21 drafted newsletters from Japan,
0:12:23 hosted mastermind meetings from Spain,
0:12:25 ended up being the middle of the night
0:12:29 to get to US business hours and outlined courses in Mexico.
0:12:32 The common thread of all of these trips though
0:12:33 is Airbnb.
0:12:36 We love being able to get exactly what we’re looking for
0:12:40 in a place to stay and have a more local experience
0:12:42 than staying in some giant hotel chain.
0:12:43 And you know me, I’m always thinking about
0:12:46 the next side hustle idea, the next income stream, right?
0:12:48 And one that’s at the top of the list
0:12:51 is hosting our place on Airbnb while we’re traveling.
0:12:53 That way the house doesn’t have to sit empty.
0:12:55 We could use the income to help pay for the trip.
0:12:57 And we’ve heard from several successful
0:12:59 Airbnb hosts on the show.
0:13:01 And what’s interesting is a lot of them started
0:13:04 with almost that exact strategy,
0:13:06 running their place or even a spare room
0:13:08 while they’re out of town.
0:13:10 Taking inspiration from that,
0:13:12 you might have an Airbnb right under your nose.
0:13:15 In fact, your home might be worth more than you think.
0:13:19 You can find out how much at Airbnb.com/host.
0:13:22 That’s Airbnb.com/host to find out
0:13:24 how much your home is worth.
0:13:26 We’re at our local street fair last month
0:13:30 and my kids are like magnets to any of these vendor booths
0:13:33 that have a prize wheel or a bowl of candy.
0:13:34 And one of those booths happens to be
0:13:37 one of the big name brand wireless carriers.
0:13:40 So the woman asks me as the kids are collecting
0:13:42 their little trinket prize, are you a customer of ours?
0:13:45 And I have to say, no, I’m actually on Mint Mobile
0:13:47 and have been for a long time.
0:13:50 So she asks, well, how much do you pay?
0:13:51 And so I tell her and she says,
0:13:53 “Yeah, I can’t match that,”
0:13:55 which is why I’m excited to partner
0:13:56 with Mint Mobile for this episode
0:13:59 because friends don’t let friends overpay for wireless.
0:14:01 Mint Mobile is just 15 bucks a month
0:14:03 when you purchase a three month plan.
0:14:05 And all plans come with high speed data
0:14:07 and unlimited talk and text
0:14:10 delivered on the nation’s largest 5G network.
0:14:13 You can use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan
0:14:14 and bring your own phone number
0:14:16 along with all your existing contacts.
0:14:18 To get this new customer offer
0:14:20 and your new three month premium wireless plan
0:14:22 for just 15 bucks a month,
0:14:25 go to mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:14:28 That’s mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:14:31 Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month
0:14:34 at mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:14:36 $45 upfront payment required,
0:14:38 equivalent to $15 per month.
0:14:40 New customers on first three month plan only.
0:14:44 Speeds slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan.
0:14:46 Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply.
0:14:48 See Mint Mobile for details.
0:14:53 All right, we’re back with Jared from 201 Creative End.
0:14:54 The niche pursuits podcast,
0:14:57 doing some scary good side hustles.
0:14:58 And number four on this list
0:15:01 is an AI baby picture generator.
0:15:03 Like what is your baby gonna look like?
0:15:06 Upload your picture and your spouse’s picture
0:15:07 and it matches them together.
0:15:09 And it gives kind of this age progression.
0:15:11 Like, oh, at four years old, they’re gonna look like this.
0:15:14 This was launched by Yifan Go out of Singapore
0:15:18 called ourbabyai.com launched April 2023,
0:15:22 charged nine bucks for a set of AI created baby pictures.
0:15:25 I wanna, there’s gotta be like a face mash app
0:15:26 that had been doing it.
0:15:28 I don’t know if the AI angle is necessarily important here.
0:15:31 I feel like there’s been tools to do this for a long time.
0:15:34 But by December, so six, seven months later,
0:15:37 he has crossed over $10,000 in revenue.
0:15:39 According to Yifan’s personal site,
0:15:42 sold that site this year for an undisclosed five figure sum
0:15:44 and relied on Google traffic.
0:15:47 Like people were typing in AI baby generator
0:15:50 and he was blessed with some solid SEO
0:15:52 and came up on the first page for that.
0:15:54 Then look like he’s on the first page anymore.
0:15:56 I couldn’t find our baby AI anymore,
0:15:59 but he sold it, he moved on, built a cool little tool
0:16:01 and was making some money with it.
0:16:03 – I mean, you know, I’ve got, I have kids
0:16:06 and I know when we were, you know, doing all the stuff
0:16:07 while, you know, pregnant leading up to it,
0:16:09 like they’re like, hey, you wanna get that 3D image
0:16:10 of your baby and all that.
0:16:12 And I, you know, I thought it looked kind of weird,
0:16:14 but it is your baby and there’s something about it, you know?
0:16:17 But they never told you what your baby was gonna look like
0:16:19 after it was born and when it was four and when it was six.
0:16:21 I mean, it feels like one of those things that, you know,
0:16:24 it’s like, we talked about already, like parties,
0:16:26 events, weddings, but also baby, like people are willing
0:16:28 to kind of spend some money in that category.
0:16:32 And throwing $9 at something, probably for most people
0:16:34 on a whim, my dad, anybody’s going like, oh my gosh,
0:16:35 I always knew I’d have a blonde haired kid.
0:16:37 Like I don’t think anyone’s taking it too seriously,
0:16:40 but it’s probably worth like nine bucks to people.
0:16:42 And it’s just a cool story in how he really found a price
0:16:44 point that seems to have resonated with enough people
0:16:46 that he got a viable side hustle out of it.
0:16:48 – Yeah, it’s almost the novelty factor
0:16:51 where you could either create it before you have a kid
0:16:55 and then like now five years later, like, hey,
0:16:57 that was pretty accurate or that was way off.
0:16:59 It’s almost this, you know, surprise it.
0:17:01 You put it in a time capsule kind of thing.
0:17:04 I’d be curious to see, maybe I should upload my wife’s
0:17:07 and I can see like, well, did it generate a kid
0:17:08 that looks anything like ours?
0:17:09 – That’s actually a good point.
0:17:11 I mean, we have no idea how accurate this is.
0:17:12 To some degree, it’s gonna take years for it to,
0:17:16 I guess, determine if it’s accurate, but why not?
0:17:17 I mean, he had fun with the whole thing.
0:17:20 He’s got a post on Twitter, my silly website,
0:17:22 our baby AI that doesn’t actually solve a problem
0:17:24 has crossed $10,000 in total revenues.
0:17:26 I think he kind of knew it was a fun thing.
0:17:28 Hopefully everybody who bought those pictures
0:17:30 thought it was kind of a fun thing.
0:17:32 – Yeah, are there any other, you know,
0:17:35 one of the AI side hustles would be building,
0:17:38 you know, an internal GPT for organizations
0:17:41 or building kind of like a customer response bot
0:17:43 for different organizations based on the knowledge base
0:17:45 or something like any other, you know,
0:17:47 could be in this fun category
0:17:49 or it could be in a more useful category,
0:17:52 but like any AI assisted side hustles
0:17:54 that you might be excited about these days.
0:17:56 – Oh man, I’ll talk about it maybe if we have time
0:17:58 to get into like what kind of side hustles we’re working on.
0:17:59 But one of the things I’m doing right now
0:18:01 is repurposing a lot of my email content
0:18:03 that I write for the Weekend Growth newsletter.
0:18:04 I’m repurposing on Medium.
0:18:07 And Medium is really fun ’cause you can kind of,
0:18:08 I’ve been doing that,
0:18:10 but I’ve also been exploring new topics on Medium
0:18:11 and just sharing about it.
0:18:12 And a couple months ago,
0:18:14 my wife and I were having the hardest time
0:18:15 meal planning every week.
0:18:16 And I thought, wait a second,
0:18:19 we know our priorities, we know what we like to eat,
0:18:20 we know what our families like to eat,
0:18:21 we know all these details.
0:18:23 How about I just write a GPT for it?
0:18:24 And so I did.
0:18:26 And so it’s a GPT and then, you know,
0:18:27 it’s pretty simple for people to follow,
0:18:29 but I just thought a month ago, I’m like, Bill,
0:18:30 I wonder if you could sell this,
0:18:33 I wonder if you could sell this idea of here’s a GPT
0:18:35 that’s gonna build your family a custom meal plan
0:18:37 based on, you know, your preferences, your allergies,
0:18:39 your all the different things you want
0:18:41 and actually give you a meal plan every week.
0:18:43 – Yeah, I mean, that’s a huge pain point
0:18:46 that perpetual question of, you know, what’s for dinner?
0:18:48 And, you know, there’s companies solving it
0:18:51 in different ways, obviously from the, you know,
0:18:54 done for you meal kit delivery type of things
0:18:57 down to Paprika is a meal planning app
0:19:00 that’s been mentioned, Cooksmarts we’ve used off and on.
0:19:02 But yeah, if there’s, you know, maybe there is
0:19:04 this AI assisted type of thing, that’d be really cool
0:19:06 to figure out, okay, what’s the grocery list, right?
0:19:09 You know, what are the proportions that need to go at this?
0:19:12 Could we reuse one ingredient across
0:19:13 two or three different meals?
0:19:14 Like, can we make enough to have leftovers?
0:19:17 Like there’s a few different boxes that you could check there
0:19:20 and definitely use some tech assist on that.
0:19:22 – My friend even gave me an idea on that.
0:19:23 He read the article and he’s like,
0:19:24 you know, you could probably do it
0:19:26 where you actually just take a picture of your fridge
0:19:27 and you’re covered and it kind of learns
0:19:28 and sees what you already have.
0:19:30 So you don’t have to go buy that again.
0:19:31 – Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:19:32 Yeah, we already have this stuff.
0:19:33 I like it.
0:19:34 What’s the process?
0:19:36 Like, you know, to make your own meal planning thing
0:19:39 or to make your own GPT, like what does that even look like?
0:19:41 How technical do I have to be?
0:19:42 – Not at all, not at all.
0:19:46 Seriously, like we do a lot of AI implementation
0:19:48 at our agency, but not in a complicated way.
0:19:52 Like you just go to the chat GPT open AI framework
0:19:54 and there’s a whole section on GPTs
0:19:55 and you can create your own.
0:19:57 It’s just, it’s kind of the classic analogy
0:19:58 of how to best use AI to begin with.
0:20:00 Like the more you give it on the way in,
0:20:02 the better it’s going to do for you.
0:20:04 Clearly tell it what you want it to do.
0:20:05 So you kind of have to have the goal in mind.
0:20:07 Don’t go in just kind of brainstorming.
0:20:08 Have the goal in mind
0:20:10 and then just start working in all the different things.
0:20:11 But that’s the great thing.
0:20:12 Like you can make the GPT.
0:20:13 You can play around with it.
0:20:14 You can test it.
0:20:15 You can use it and you can go back in
0:20:16 and add more to it later.
0:20:17 So you can say, you know,
0:20:18 let me give you some more information.
0:20:19 And now that I’ve used this for a week or two.
0:20:20 – Okay, got it.
0:20:22 Yeah, I could upload 10 years of podcast archives
0:20:26 and build something that would be helpful.
0:20:28 – I mean, the challenges creating a side hustle through AI
0:20:30 is that it’s going to be always be changing.
0:20:33 But the brilliance of using AI to create a side hustle,
0:20:36 I think is that, you know, there’s low barriers to entry.
0:20:39 Obviously the cost for doing it isn’t very high,
0:20:40 but also like to your point,
0:20:42 a lot of us can get in there and kind of, you know,
0:20:44 use a lot of these no code solutions
0:20:48 along with, you know, some customization in the AI model
0:20:49 and come up with some different ideas.
0:20:50 I mean, this guy made it work.
0:20:53 I think he said in the shower one day for the AI baby,
0:20:56 you know, all the way back to the AI baby photo thing,
0:20:58 you know, and so it’s an interesting opportunity.
0:21:00 It’s really an interesting opportunity for a lot of people.
0:21:03 That was the original idea for this episode.
0:21:06 Like, could I make the 100% AI episode?
0:21:07 And I’m glad we’re doing this instead,
0:21:09 but maybe that day is coming to be like,
0:21:12 well, that’s kind of a spooky, scary, futuristic thing.
0:21:15 Like we make a Halloween episode where it’s not even,
0:21:18 it’s just Robo, Robo Nick, but we’re really here
0:21:20 in the flesh, very good.
0:21:22 So that was number four, this AI baby generator
0:21:25 making 10 grand in total revenue before selling
0:21:29 for a $10,000 plus exit there.
0:21:30 What’s next for us?
0:21:31 This one’s fun.
0:21:33 We’re gonna go from AI to like a little bit more
0:21:35 of a classic idea.
0:21:37 And this is the cotton candy vending machines.
0:21:40 And so this is somebody who basically started
0:21:42 with two machines inside of a resort.
0:21:44 And so they have this kind of story
0:21:46 about how they stopped working and et cetera.
0:21:48 But basically their first weekend,
0:21:51 that story they talked about was $800 in revenue
0:21:53 from a machine on a good month.
0:21:55 Now, again, they’re doing it year round, it seemed like.
0:21:57 So summer, one machine can make anywhere
0:21:59 from six to 15K in revenue.
0:22:02 They have, I think 10 machines now.
0:22:05 And so they’re up into much higher revenue.
0:22:07 I mean, this is a really interesting idea
0:22:08 because I don’t know about in your neighborhood,
0:22:11 but you’ve obviously got the Halloween festivals.
0:22:14 We’ve got like my kids at their elementary school.
0:22:16 They have their little PTA fundraiser festival.
0:22:18 You’ve got a lot of the ironically like churches
0:22:20 in the neighborhood that do their fall festivals.
0:22:22 And then you’ve also got October fest, by the way.
0:22:25 And that’s usually at end of September, early October.
0:22:26 So specifically this time of year,
0:22:29 like the cotton candy of any machine you could use year round.
0:22:30 But this time of year, there’s actually a lot
0:22:32 of like fall festivals where these sorts
0:22:33 of things would work really well.
0:22:36 – Yeah, if you could rent it out for an event.
0:22:38 ‘Cause the machines themselves are maybe a couple thousand
0:22:41 bucks and you have some material costs going into that.
0:22:45 But if he’s pulling in 800 bucks from one machine
0:22:47 on one weekend, like he’s making cotton candy.
0:22:49 Like there’s not that much material that goes into it.
0:22:53 And, you know, he described there is more,
0:22:54 I mean, any vending machine has some,
0:22:56 you either got to go restock it
0:22:58 or you got to go service it, like in this case.
0:23:00 But he’s like, I’ve got independent contractors
0:23:02 on the ground, they make this part of their route
0:23:03 and they go do this.
0:23:04 The question is always like,
0:23:06 oh shoot, why didn’t the resort think of this?
0:23:07 If they’re having that kind of ROI,
0:23:09 why didn’t the resort just put it in themselves?
0:23:12 But, you know, that’s not the business that they’re in.
0:23:13 They want to stay in their lane.
0:23:16 They want to, you know, delegate this little extra service
0:23:17 to somebody else.
0:23:20 This is distinctivevending.com if you want to check it out.
0:23:23 So he’s got the, I think he’s got a balloon machine
0:23:24 that makes balloon animals.
0:23:26 That seems even more complicated.
0:23:28 But again, almost no cost of goods,
0:23:29 all like a little Rover balloon.
0:23:32 And you charge three, four or five bucks for that
0:23:33 and you’re doing pretty well.
0:23:36 – Yeah, he said, in 2024, he’s on track
0:23:37 to make 500 grand in revenue.
0:23:39 I mean, that’s quite the side hustle.
0:23:40 Obviously we don’t know the, you know,
0:23:41 the net profit or anything like that.
0:23:44 My wife, when she was on a team growing up
0:23:45 and they would fundraise,
0:23:47 and their most successful fundraiser
0:23:49 was renting a snow cone machine
0:23:51 and then going to a local market
0:23:54 and selling snow cones to the local crowd.
0:23:56 And then they would pay obviously for the rental
0:23:58 for the snow cone, but they would make,
0:24:01 they would make 1,000 in one day selling snow cones
0:24:03 even after the rental and the cost of goods sold.
0:24:06 – Yeah, yeah, selling frozen water and sugar syrup
0:24:08 is some pretty good margins and that too.
0:24:09 – So this is a good idea.
0:24:11 And like you said, I mean, once you buy the machine,
0:24:14 probably some service, but if you have a place to store it,
0:24:16 if you have like an area you can store it,
0:24:16 like it’s kind of one of these things
0:24:18 where it’s not costing you money
0:24:19 if it’s not rented out that weekend.
0:24:21 – Yeah, there’s a novelty factor of like,
0:24:24 oh shoot, I’ve never seen a cotton candy vending machine before.
0:24:26 So I think that works in his favor.
0:24:28 And you can kind of get inspiration from this stuff
0:24:30 while you’re traveling.
0:24:32 Like we’ve got a trip to Japan coming up next year
0:24:35 and it’s like vending machine central.
0:24:36 There’s some stat, like, you know,
0:24:38 there’s a vending machine for every person in the country.
0:24:41 But you know, you wake up the first morning
0:24:43 that you’re there because of jet lag
0:24:44 and it’s five in the morning
0:24:46 and our son was three months old at the time.
0:24:47 Like, all right, buddy, you know,
0:24:49 strapped into the ergo, let’s go for a walk.
0:24:52 And you find these like iced coffee vending machines.
0:24:53 It’s like a dollar.
0:24:56 And you’re like, yes, this is exactly what I need right now.
0:24:57 This is fantastic.
0:24:58 But they have vending machines for everything,
0:25:00 even at certain restaurants.
0:25:02 And so you take inspiration from that
0:25:04 as long as you find manufacturing and stuff.
0:25:07 Like if you can bring that to a good location,
0:25:11 and that’s kind of the key component is, you know,
0:25:13 location, location, location, just like real estate.
0:25:16 In our vending machine episode we did earlier in the year
0:25:20 was 599 with Mike Hoffman from vendingpreneurs.
0:25:22 And he’s, I said, well, you know,
0:25:24 what’s going to separate you from the five other guys,
0:25:25 you know, knocking on the door,
0:25:27 trying to put a vending machine in this place.
0:25:28 And he’s like, don’t say the V word.
0:25:32 Talk about modern amenities instead of vending.
0:25:35 And, you know, because he’s opening it up to,
0:25:37 you know, these like staffless,
0:25:39 mini, mini market type of things.
0:25:41 And, you know, more than just like your old school
0:25:42 of vending machine type of stuff.
0:25:45 But I think it could play well with cotton candy
0:25:48 or balloons or different seasonal events.
0:25:51 There’s much more, the game is much broader
0:25:53 than just, you know, candy bars and sodas.
0:25:54 – I listened to that episode.
0:25:56 It was really a good episode.
0:25:59 And it was, that one felt like it was really, you know,
0:26:00 to some degree you’re relying a lot more
0:26:04 on how you discuss this concept with that local place,
0:26:06 whatever it is, whether it’s, you know,
0:26:08 what we get in all, he talked about it in the episode.
0:26:10 But, you know, to some degree, this one, you know,
0:26:12 you could capitalize on a lot of different things.
0:26:16 Like, you know, local events and festivals and parties.
0:26:18 And you could probably even going back to an idea
0:26:19 we already shared and talked about.
0:26:22 Like, you could probably market this to parties in the area.
0:26:25 You know, so you can market it to summer barbecues
0:26:27 and Halloween parties and all these different, you know,
0:26:29 Christmas parties and things that people throw.
0:26:31 And how cool would it be to have like a cotton candy machine
0:26:33 as the featured dessert for the night?
0:26:36 – Yeah, it would almost be like a photo booth rental
0:26:39 for this wedding, for this party or something like that.
0:26:41 But even better, if you could find that evergreen
0:26:43 location that’s just gonna make you sales all the time.
0:26:48 But there’s an event or a specific play there as well.
0:26:50 So that’s number five on this list.
0:26:53 Number six is one we alluded to earlier where it’s like,
0:26:56 okay, we’ll do Christmas light install and take down.
0:27:00 But, you know, that theme of decorating for holidays
0:27:02 has been creeping earlier and earlier in the year.
0:27:05 And Halloween has become quite a big thing.
0:27:07 We were at Home Depot with my son and they had, you know,
0:27:11 these huge, you know, animatronic zombies and stuff.
0:27:13 And then you got a button on the floor and watch them,
0:27:15 you know, raise his arms up at you and make some noise.
0:27:18 It’s definitely become a thing with the inflatables
0:27:20 and everything else to decorate your yard for Halloween.
0:27:22 In fact, we got a little spiderweb up in the yard now.
0:27:24 We never had anything like that as kids.
0:27:26 We had jack-o’-lanterns on the porch.
0:27:27 Like that was it. Turn the light on.
0:27:28 Jack-o’-lanterns on the porch.
0:27:29 You’re open for business for trick or treating.
0:27:32 But like now it’s become such a thing.
0:27:34 And so this is lightupyourholidays.com.
0:27:37 They started doing Christmas lights 20 years ago in Chicago.
0:27:40 Now they’ve expanded to do Halloween as well.
0:27:43 With packages starting at $1,800.
0:27:45 Doesn’t take many houses to make a meaningful side hustle
0:27:48 if your packages start at $1,800.
0:27:50 – They are all about free design, right?
0:27:52 So like, there’s clearly like,
0:27:54 you’re buying something that’s unique.
0:27:55 This is probably a little bit different at least
0:27:57 from what I saw than your classic like,
0:27:58 hey, we’ll hang your lights up.
0:28:00 And I show up and you’ve already got the lights
0:28:01 and I just hang them up and I move on.
0:28:04 Which for the record, I think that’s pretty lucrative too.
0:28:04 But this is different.
0:28:06 This is really going for that kind of luxury feel
0:28:08 where we’re gonna give you something totally unique.
0:28:09 We’re gonna design something.
0:28:12 We’ll click here to request your free Halloween design,
0:28:13 schedule you a virtual design call
0:28:16 to see your custom options and pricings and then reserve it.
0:28:18 So you’re exactly right.
0:28:19 Like if you’re already doing,
0:28:21 if you already have access to a lot of this stuff
0:28:23 for a different holiday like Christmas,
0:28:25 I mean, shoot, it’s such a good idea.
0:28:26 Their website is generic enough
0:28:29 that it’s probably start off about Christmas lights.
0:28:30 And I’m sure on November 1st,
0:28:34 this entire homepage gets changed over to Christmas, right?
0:28:36 But right now it’s all Halloween themed.
0:28:37 – Yeah, yeah, and then we’ll shoot.
0:28:40 We’ll take over for Valentine’s Day and 4th of July.
0:28:43 Like there’s, I mean, if you have enough customers
0:28:44 to keep doing it.
0:28:45 The other one that I wanna point out
0:28:49 under this category of holiday decor, Halloween decor
0:28:51 is porch pumpkins.
0:28:54 So you gotta check out this woman on Instagram.
0:28:57 Her handle is porch pumpkins, 34,000 followers.
0:29:00 This is Heather Torres out of Dallas.
0:29:04 And what she does is she just piles a bunch of pumpkins
0:29:05 on people’s porches.
0:29:08 And that’s me being somewhat facetious,
0:29:10 but she makes them look really nice.
0:29:11 – Two people that have no design skills.
0:29:12 Is that what you’re implying?
0:29:13 That’s kind of what it sounds like to us.
0:29:15 – A million dollars worth of pumpkins
0:29:18 in four months out of the year.
0:29:19 She’s got a whole, I think she has a warehouse.
0:29:20 She’s got drivers.
0:29:21 Like there’s some logistics involved.
0:29:23 There’s some costs involved.
0:29:25 But she’s found customers doing a million dollars
0:29:27 of revenue to put pumpkins on people’s porches.
0:29:28 There is a niche for everything.
0:29:30 I was really excited when I found this one.
0:29:32 – I think, I love that one when I saw it
0:29:35 because that just taps into,
0:29:36 you don’t have to stop at the porch.
0:29:39 You can go and help them decorate the inside of their house.
0:29:40 You can help them decorate their backyard.
0:29:44 You can, like people, they don’t have to then buy
0:29:48 and store and piece together a good looking design
0:29:51 for their holiday theme, in this case Halloween.
0:29:53 You can just have it all delivered, set up,
0:29:54 aesthetically put together.
0:29:56 You can do just your porch.
0:29:58 But I mean, I would imagine you could extend into the home
0:29:59 and you could do every holiday.
0:30:00 You know, people like to design for the summer
0:30:02 and the people like to design for fall in general.
0:30:05 So, there’s a, boy, that thing’s got a lot of legs
0:30:06 to work through.
0:30:09 – Yeah, I was super impressed.
0:30:11 It says last year, she did 900 jobs,
0:30:15 ranging between 300 and $2,000 with extra charges.
0:30:16 Hey, you want me to take the pumpkins away?
0:30:19 We’ll happy to do it, but we’ll charge you extra for that.
0:30:21 It was funny, we read Trader Joe’s with the kids
0:30:24 a couple of weeks ago and this lady in front of us in line,
0:30:27 she, her entire cart, no food, only pumpkins.
0:30:30 And, you know, maybe, maybe she’s the local version
0:30:31 of porch pumpkins of Heather.
0:30:34 I was just, what are you gonna do with so many pumpkins?
0:30:36 But maybe she’s doing it as a sign business.
0:30:38 We’ll go decorate some people’s porches.
0:30:39 – And this is such an interesting,
0:30:42 I mean, we obviously, she’s doing at so much scale,
0:30:44 but you can start off by just tapping your network.
0:30:46 And then this would probably also do really well
0:30:48 on social media, you know, TikTok, Instagram,
0:30:50 Instagram posting about this.
0:30:52 You could probably build up enough of a head of steam
0:30:55 just throughout the year by showing you,
0:30:57 by showing this process over and over again,
0:30:58 adding some personality to it.
0:30:59 Like this feels like a business.
0:31:00 You don’t have to have like SEO skills
0:31:03 and necessarily have a, you know, we talked about
0:31:05 like getting your, your vending machine placed
0:31:05 in certain places.
0:31:07 I bet you could just rely on your network
0:31:09 and social media to really get it off the ground.
0:31:12 – Yeah, it sounds like it primarily is social driven
0:31:13 for her.
0:31:14 Hey, I’m gonna open up orders in July.
0:31:16 I’m sold out by August.
0:31:19 And now it’s just time to go find the pumpkins,
0:31:21 do the design work, set them up.
0:31:22 I don’t know, that was crazy.
0:31:23 – That’s probably where she spends most of her time
0:31:26 is driving over trying to find all the pumpkins she needs.
0:31:29 – Yeah, go to the buy out a segment of the pumpkin patch
0:31:31 and make sure they got only the good looking ones.
0:31:33 Porchfumpkins.com, you can find her over there.
0:31:35 We’ve got more Halloween themed side hustles,
0:31:37 scary good side hustles with Jared coming up
0:31:38 right after this.
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0:34:18 All right, we’re back with Jared from 201 Creative End,
0:34:19 the weekend growth newsletter,
0:34:22 doing some scary, good side hustles.
0:34:25 And this was a really interesting one that I found.
0:34:27 It was selling digital clothes.
0:34:31 And this just blows my mind ’cause my son is,
0:34:33 the first thing he gets a new game,
0:34:34 I wanna change my avatar.
0:34:37 Or he was very into what his character is wearing
0:34:41 in whatever game it is, if it’s Minecraft
0:34:43 or it’s like Nintendo Switch sports.
0:34:46 Like, oh, I got this upgraded jacket.
0:34:47 Or like, who cares?
0:34:48 Like, I just wanna play the game.
0:34:50 Like, spend so much time on this stuff,
0:34:52 but there’s a huge market around this.
0:34:55 So this is Kiesia Watson, 22-year-old,
0:34:58 selling Roblox clothes.
0:35:01 And I did not know this was a thing,
0:35:05 but she does freelance clothing design for some big brands
0:35:07 who wanna get their brand into this game.
0:35:08 Like, hey, where are people spending their time?
0:35:09 They’re spending some time in this game.
0:35:10 We wanna be everywhere.
0:35:13 We wanna get our clothes and designs in front of there.
0:35:15 And so she’d been doing it for years and years,
0:35:18 selling her own designs and clothes.
0:35:20 It’s a cool side hustling that it’s something
0:35:21 that you create once, so over and over again,
0:35:24 like an app or a piece of software or a piece of content.
0:35:27 But, you know, it’s two cents per sale.
0:35:29 Like, it was definitely a volume game
0:35:30 until she went out and started to get, like,
0:35:32 freelance design contracts from some bigger brands.
0:35:35 – I think I saw that she made in her first year,
0:35:38 which was 2023, over $110,000,
0:35:42 according to, like, it was verified by CNBC, I suppose.
0:35:44 And, I mean, this piggyback stuff,
0:35:47 when I first saw this story on our list here today,
0:35:48 I thought it was gonna be, like,
0:35:52 hey, the classic Halloween costume rental place, you know?
0:35:53 Like, be a little local boutique.
0:35:55 – Yeah, yeah, yeah, like a spirit Halloween, yeah.
0:35:57 – Yeah, you know, especially if you know how to sew,
0:35:58 or, you know, you can just, like,
0:36:01 I was thinking in my head how great that idea is.
0:36:02 Even not even if you know how to sew,
0:36:04 it’s just, like, go out to all your friends
0:36:04 on November 1st and be like,
0:36:06 “Hey, can I buy all your old costumes
0:36:09 “you guys just got done with for like a dollar each off yet?”
0:36:11 And you can just start building up a whole supply of costumes
0:36:14 just by buying all your friends used Halloween costumes
0:36:15 the day after Halloween.
0:36:16 But this puts a whole new spin on it.
0:36:18 I mean, this is all digital,
0:36:19 so it opens up all these avenues,
0:36:21 and it also kind of highlights, you mentioned it,
0:36:24 like, using that skill set and that expertise you built up
0:36:27 to then go out and get contracts that are outside of that.
0:36:29 That seems to be where she earned a lot of her money.
0:36:30 – Yeah, this is an interesting one.
0:36:33 It’s trying to go, you’re already part of this ecosystem,
0:36:34 you’re part of this community,
0:36:36 you know how the game is played,
0:36:37 you know what’s gonna play well.
0:36:41 But then playing that game the way you’ve been doing it
0:36:42 is not gonna become a full-time thing.
0:36:45 It’s like, you gotta go higher market,
0:36:47 you gotta go find those corporate clients
0:36:51 that really have budget to spend in a digital world,
0:36:52 in this case.
0:36:54 – Yeah, I think this is a good time to mention,
0:36:55 like, with every side hustle,
0:36:57 you gotta understand how scalable it is
0:36:59 and how scalable you want it to be.
0:37:02 And for a lot of us, we kind of land into a side hustle,
0:37:03 and then it goes well,
0:37:04 and then we start thinking about what’s next,
0:37:05 but you don’t necessarily think about what’s next
0:37:07 until you have that first initial success.
0:37:09 But it’s a great example, like you said,
0:37:12 kind of going upmarket and not getting kind of confined
0:37:14 by just the limitations of what she started with.
0:37:16 – Yeah, the parallel would be, you know,
0:37:17 like stock photography shows up
0:37:19 on a bunch of different lists of side hustles,
0:37:21 but the people who have success doing it
0:37:24 have thousands, hundreds of thousands of images.
0:37:26 And okay, we’re gonna play this volume game,
0:37:29 and it can work, like it’s passive once those things sell.
0:37:31 But the near-term thing is like,
0:37:34 why don’t I go do portraits, weddings, senior photos,
0:37:36 family photos, corporate events,
0:37:39 and charge three, four, 500, you know,
0:37:41 up to several thousand dollars for that event.
0:37:43 And so it’s kind of a similar play here,
0:37:45 where it’s like, yeah, I can make these things
0:37:47 and they’ll sell, and I can build up my portfolio,
0:37:49 but I gotta go find the corporate client.
0:37:51 And I’ve been thinking, ’cause some people have approached,
0:37:55 like could we, you know, license your side hustle curriculum,
0:37:58 or could you create a side hustle curriculum?
0:38:01 Like who’s the bigger, who’s the bigger fish
0:38:03 that already would be interested in what you know?
0:38:06 And that’s something that’s kind of been on my mind lately,
0:38:07 where it’s like, okay, you could sell, you know,
0:38:10 onesie twosies, or you could go license this to somebody.
0:38:13 We had a guy who was doing a book summary service,
0:38:15 that was his side hustle.
0:38:16 And yeah, you could sell it,
0:38:17 you could go to the website and buy it,
0:38:20 but like for him, it was like, we’re gonna go to Zappos,
0:38:21 we’re gonna go to these companies
0:38:26 that have proven to make investments in employee learning,
0:38:28 like continuing education, like they care about this stuff.
0:38:31 Like as a benefit of working here,
0:38:34 you also get access to this book summary service.
0:38:36 It was like, oh, that was a great pitch.
0:38:39 – This reminds me in equal parts, like to your point,
0:38:42 this reminds me of a story that I heard a while back
0:38:43 about a friend of a friend, so I don’t know them,
0:38:44 but they kind of built something
0:38:46 that kind of reminds me of this
0:38:47 for the Minecraft community.
0:38:48 And then, you know, caught popularity.
0:38:50 They weren’t making a ton of money off of it.
0:38:51 It was just truly like a little side hustle,
0:38:53 more of a passion project than anything.
0:38:55 But years later, landed a job at Minecraft
0:38:57 as a result of getting on their radar
0:38:59 and one thing leads led to another.
0:39:00 And so they ended up, yes,
0:39:02 they didn’t have a side hustle anymore.
0:39:02 Now they had a job,
0:39:04 but they were doing a job in an industry
0:39:06 they absolutely loved and was built on
0:39:08 the fact that they built a side hustle on it.
0:39:11 – Yeah, there’s some cool stuff you can do in Minecraft.
0:39:14 I think some friends of ours bought Disneyland,
0:39:16 basically a Minecraft version of Disneyland
0:39:19 where they’ve recreated the entire park, all the rides,
0:39:22 and, you know, probably paid five bucks for it or something.
0:39:26 But if this guy sells Disneyland to thousands of people,
0:39:27 and it was kind of a cool,
0:39:30 something he probably wanted to create anyway, you know?
0:39:33 It’s like, if you can find that kind of space to play in,
0:39:35 I think you’re gonna have some fun.
0:39:38 – I agree, especially if you already are in that space anyways.
0:39:40 I mean, shoot, what’s the downside?
0:39:42 – All right, next one is one that has come
0:39:44 across my desk a few times this year.
0:39:48 And I know nothing about gambling or sports betting.
0:39:50 Now it’s like, what do these numbers mean?
0:39:53 Like the plus 120 or the minus,
0:39:54 I don’t know, I had to ask my friends this weekend,
0:39:57 like what does it mean when it says like plus 1300 or something?
0:39:59 But the side hustles that’s come across my desk
0:40:01 is arbitrage sports betting.
0:40:03 Yeah, are you bet on football games or anything?
0:40:04 – Nope, not at all.
0:40:06 – All right, so this will be a great segment
0:40:07 to complete rookies.
0:40:11 So my understanding of this is different sports books
0:40:13 are gonna have different odds on different games.
0:40:16 And the arbitrage opportunity is to find one
0:40:18 where this sports book says, you know,
0:40:20 the Yankees are gonna win
0:40:23 and this sports book says the Yankees are gonna lose
0:40:26 and you find the, so you make two bets
0:40:28 and you know you’re gonna lose one
0:40:30 but you know you’re also gonna win one
0:40:32 and that cancels out the loss
0:40:34 and you make a little bit of margin on it.
0:40:36 Like it sounds tedious, sounds impossible to do
0:40:38 without software and that’s why there’s a bunch of software.
0:40:40 Like, you know, I don’t wanna plug any of them
0:40:41 and can’t speak for them
0:40:43 but there’s a bunch of softwares that’ll help you do this.
0:40:44 You just have to have accounts
0:40:47 at every different sports book imaginable.
0:40:50 And I don’t know how frowned upon this is
0:40:52 if this is like just a known thing that happens.
0:40:55 Like I guess they’re taking their cut or their fees
0:40:55 or they probably don’t care
0:40:56 but it’s an interesting one.
0:41:00 – I mean, if you’re like a data nerd, a math nerd,
0:41:02 maybe this is something to look into.
0:41:04 Obviously, sports betting has grown quite a bit.
0:41:06 I was reading here, I think it was in 2018
0:41:08 kind of opened up a lot more legalization.
0:41:10 I think I saw a stat in here again.
0:41:14 35% of Americans are betting on sports now.
0:41:17 So, you know, growing market, growing, that sort of thing,
0:41:18 I think you described it pretty well.
0:41:20 I’ve never bet on a sporting event
0:41:22 that I can think of in my entire life.
0:41:23 But from, I am a math nerd.
0:41:26 Like I did kind of major basically in college in math.
0:41:28 And so the process does kind of make sense.
0:41:31 You know, you’re kind of arbitraging different sports betting
0:41:34 books and the way that they set lines
0:41:35 and the way these things can change dynamically.
0:41:39 You know, these numbers can change like leading up to a game
0:41:41 or one sports book, like somebody gets injured
0:41:43 and one sports book looks at that differently
0:41:44 than another one, right?
0:41:45 And so-
0:41:47 – Yeah, or they haven’t all updated in real time.
0:41:49 Like there’s some lag and that’s kind of my understanding
0:41:50 is like-
0:41:52 – Yep, or you get inside information that this guy’s
0:41:54 injured and you know before the sports book finds out
0:41:56 or so there’s a lot of stuff there where like,
0:41:59 I can see how there would be arbitrage opportunities
0:42:01 every weekend, every week on different sporting events
0:42:05 depending on where you land in terms of the way
0:42:07 your mind works and in terms of how interested you are
0:42:08 to kind of get involved in that.
0:42:11 – Yeah, I was really surprised when we were watching
0:42:12 football last weekend, you know,
0:42:15 there was a lot of gambling related commercial.
0:42:18 And the first one was like, you know, when you have a hunch
0:42:21 you want to be able to place that bet like right now.
0:42:22 I thought it was a joke effort.
0:42:24 They were like, oh no, they’re like seriously promoting
0:42:26 fan duel or whatever, you know, what it was.
0:42:28 It was kind of surprising.
0:42:30 It’s like, oh, I guess this is, this is a big deal.
0:42:33 And if you are going to do it, maybe there’s some
0:42:36 arbitrage opportunity, the thing with any arbitrage
0:42:38 opportunity is like, it’s usually short-lived.
0:42:41 It’s usually kind of a narrow window,
0:42:42 but there’s got to be some people making this work.
0:42:44 – Might as be the movie 21, right?
0:42:46 Where, you know, blackjack and learning to,
0:42:50 if you’re smart enough at a time, like you said,
0:42:52 which is short-lived because they’ve caught onto that now
0:42:56 and casinos don’t allow you to kind of get that advantage,
0:42:58 but they were able to count cars and then use their
0:43:00 brilliance to work the system.
0:43:02 And that’s basically like a form of arbitrage, right?
0:43:05 So, you know, to some degree that loophole has been closed
0:43:07 now, but perhaps this one still reigns supreme.
0:43:12 – Yeah, I love me a underdog taking down the casino story.
0:43:14 I will read those, I will watch those all day long.
0:43:16 – I don’t think anybody was reading for the casino
0:43:18 in that movie. (laughs)
0:43:19 – Yeah, and maybe since this is all online,
0:43:21 like you’re just, you don’t have the, you know,
0:43:24 backroom brass knuckles type of risk.
0:43:26 You know, if you, they find out you’re an advantage player,
0:43:29 like, I don’t know, we’ll throw that out there.
0:43:32 Not Halloween related at all, but just something
0:43:34 I thought was interesting that’s come across.
0:43:36 – It’s the first time I’ve heard about this approach to it.
0:43:38 I think it’s a very interesting approach, again,
0:43:39 ’cause of my mathematical background,
0:43:40 I like the idea behind it.
0:43:43 – Yeah, if there’s ever risk-free profit like that,
0:43:45 that lane tends to get crowded right away.
0:43:48 There’s probably risks associated, risks in anything,
0:43:50 but it doesn’t last forever, so it’s gotta be one of these,
0:43:52 you know, get in while the gettin’s good.
0:43:54 All right, what’s next on this list?
0:43:57 – Well, you know, kind of, we’ve talked about topics
0:43:58 like this already at this point.
0:44:02 This one is a bicycle ice cream business.
0:44:04 It’s Catherine O’Brien, and she’s the owner
0:44:05 and the founder of Cream Cruiser.
0:44:07 Now this one has a little bit of a different twist to it,
0:44:08 so hang with it here.
0:44:11 What she did is, yes, she created a,
0:44:14 like an ice cream bike business where she’s gonna,
0:44:16 I think she said she started local farmer’s markets.
0:44:18 She got into weddings, corporate events, college events.
0:44:19 She just has a bike.
0:44:20 I don’t know, she actually just straight up
0:44:23 rode the bike to it, or she took it on a truck,
0:44:24 and it was more of a gimmick.
0:44:26 But it’s got ice cream in the back of it,
0:44:27 you know, ice cream sandwiches and all that.
0:44:29 I think she’s making like 10 grand a month
0:44:30 or something she was saying, but what she then did,
0:44:32 and this is what’s kind of fascinating,
0:44:34 we haven’t had this yet, is that she then went on
0:44:37 to make basically bike business university,
0:44:39 and that’s at bikebusinessuniversity.com,
0:44:42 and that is basically like teaching people
0:44:43 how to start these businesses, right?
0:44:45 And so this is a tried and true model,
0:44:49 and she makes $20,000 per month passive
0:44:51 from what it sounds like, and she said something about
0:44:54 doubling by the start of summer 2024 at last update.
0:44:55 She’s got a lot of followers on Instagram,
0:44:58 made 2,000 followers, ice cream bike lady,
0:45:00 so she’s made a business, a side hustle business
0:45:02 out of a service, but then she’s also made
0:45:03 a bigger side hustle business
0:45:05 how to teach you people how to do that service.
0:45:06 – The side hustles on side hustles,
0:45:08 one thing leads to the next.
0:45:09 There’s somebody doing this in our neighborhood,
0:45:12 and again, you know, very seasonal.
0:45:13 I think she’s in Baltimore, you know,
0:45:15 it’s gonna be equally seasonal there,
0:45:17 but we always are calculated.
0:45:18 You do, the guy comes by, you know,
0:45:21 once a week after school when the weather’s good,
0:45:24 you see him pop by the, you know, swim meets
0:45:25 when the community swim meets are going on,
0:45:26 and he just kind of has this rack,
0:45:28 and we’re always like, what kind of, you know,
0:45:31 the calculations, how many do you think he sells a day,
0:45:34 you know, what kind of go, very low overhead.
0:45:37 I mean, he’s got a bike with like a cooler attached to it.
0:45:38 Sure, there’s a custom build out on there,
0:45:41 but pretty impressive that she’s able to do that.
0:45:44 And again, going after the bigger ticket,
0:45:46 you know, weddings, corporate events,
0:45:48 rather than just, you know, onesie choosy ice cream sales,
0:45:50 I think is an interesting play on that too.
0:45:54 And then the age old playbook, do the thing, get the result,
0:45:57 and then obviously it’s, you know, kind of a,
0:46:00 I think it’s sold as being like a fun, outdoorsy,
0:46:02 money-making business.
0:46:04 And it’s like, yeah, I attracted 80,000 followers
0:46:06 for other people who want to learn how to do this.
0:46:07 So Catherine’s doing really well.
0:46:09 – I misspoke, by the way, I said $10,000 a month.
0:46:11 Geez, I looked back at it because I was looking to see,
0:46:13 my point was going to be like, the overhead is so low,
0:46:15 like even the startup costs, like,
0:46:17 you think about the classic ice cream, you know, vendor,
0:46:19 and they got to buy that big truck,
0:46:20 and you got to maintain this truck.
0:46:22 It always looks like it’s about to break down
0:46:24 and never start again, you know, and all that.
0:46:26 But this is so much easier, like the investment.
0:46:30 She said she invested under $10,000 to get it going.
0:46:31 So that was a $10,000 reference.
0:46:33 But I mean, to your point, like,
0:46:34 I think there’s so much versatility here,
0:46:36 like probably driving around, selling, you know,
0:46:38 in neighborhoods is not as profitable
0:46:40 as getting that wedding gig, that corporate gig,
0:46:43 you know, the summer fair, whatever it is,
0:46:44 that’s probably where, you know,
0:46:45 you can make a substantial amount of money.
0:46:46 It is a bit seasonal.
0:46:48 So I do go back to that seasonality thing,
0:46:49 like in Baltimore in the winter,
0:46:51 I’m wondering how much bike riding she’s doing,
0:46:52 selling ice cream cones,
0:46:53 but certainly a good spring, summer,
0:46:54 maybe early fall thing.
0:46:58 – Yeah, it turns into the hot chocolate bike vendor,
0:47:00 the hot coffee bike vendor.
0:47:02 – Turn it, flip it on its head.
0:47:03 – Oh, here it is.
0:47:06 Okay, 100 grand in five months out of the year
0:47:08 with 75% profit margins.
0:47:11 What else could you sell out of the back of a bike?
0:47:12 I think this is kind of, you know,
0:47:14 first it was food trucks,
0:47:16 and it’s like, well, even that’s too much overhead, right?
0:47:18 Like how do we shrink this down even further?
0:47:19 So pretty cool.
0:47:21 – Yeah, I think it’s great, especially again,
0:47:23 like I’m thinking about where I live, you know,
0:47:25 I live about 45 minutes out of San Diego,
0:47:27 but tons of tourists come here in the summer, right?
0:47:29 So I mean, you could just ride that thing
0:47:30 up and down the boardwalk.
0:47:32 I don’t even know if you’d have to have a permit
0:47:33 up and down all day.
0:47:35 I think you could probably make a killing.
0:47:38 – Yeah, these are the little ideas
0:47:40 that I absolutely love because it’s like,
0:47:42 doesn’t cost you anything to get it started.
0:47:44 And then hopefully, I mean, do your due diligence
0:47:46 on what kind of regulations and requirements
0:47:48 you’re gonna have to be a food vendor,
0:47:52 but pretty quick to get off the ground and, you know,
0:47:54 sell an ice cream on a hot day is a pretty easy sell.
0:47:55 So I’m doing good.
0:47:58 The last one on this list, number 10 is,
0:47:59 I don’t know how real this is.
0:48:02 This is a real life wedding crusher
0:48:04 that’s been written up in a few different sources.
0:48:07 One, one recent one was in the New York Post.
0:48:09 This is Ernesto Reynarres Vareja.
0:48:13 He lives in Spain and he is a professional wedding crusher
0:48:17 for a base fee of 500 euros, roughly $550.
0:48:20 Ernesto says he’s gonna, I’m gonna come
0:48:21 and I will crash your wedding.
0:48:25 I’m gonna pretend to be the bride’s long lost lover
0:48:27 and, you know, run away with her.
0:48:29 And I guess the primary target,
0:48:32 the target audience is the bride who’s got cold feet
0:48:36 and like wants to break it off in a really dramatic way.
0:48:39 At the altar, it was really interesting,
0:48:42 but Ernesto says he’s booked up through December.
0:48:44 – When I first saw this,
0:48:47 I really thought this was going to be an ode to,
0:48:48 when you say like wedding crashers,
0:48:51 like hiring someone to be like the life of the party, right?
0:48:52 Like if you want your wedding to be awesome,
0:48:56 hire someone who like super outgoing, super funny,
0:48:59 super loud and will show up and like dance the night away
0:49:00 and get the party going, right?
0:49:02 I didn’t expect it to be somebody who’d show up
0:49:05 and crash your wedding in with the intent to break it up.
0:49:07 And so there’s enough details in here.
0:49:09 It feels pretty legit, but I was like, there’s no way,
0:49:11 but he says he’s booked up and he’ll basically show up
0:49:13 and like for a cool 500 euro,
0:49:15 you can just kind of guess if that’s the way
0:49:17 you want to go about solving your wedding cold feet.
0:49:19 Like, I guess that’s the thing.
0:49:20 – This is proof that you don’t,
0:49:22 you only need a certain number of clients.
0:49:23 You don’t need to sell to the entire world.
0:49:25 – Yeah, there’s a market for anything.
0:49:28 And we talked to Jen Glance from Rides Mades for hire.
0:49:29 Is this a real thing?
0:49:31 And she’s like, yeah, you know,
0:49:34 people will hire me to be their maid of honor,
0:49:36 to help kind of be a shoulder to cry on,
0:49:39 to be a friend for them on this day.
0:49:43 And she built a really interesting business around that.
0:49:45 So the part that was like, got me was like,
0:49:47 is this for real?
0:49:48 It was at the end of the article.
0:49:51 He says, I get paid extra if I get hit.
0:49:53 Like if the groom or the groomsmen are like
0:49:56 punching me or slapping me on my way out,
0:49:58 you know, I get 50 euros for every extra hit.
0:49:59 So like, obviously I don’t want to get hurt,
0:50:01 but I kind of want to take my time too,
0:50:03 because that’s why I made my money.
0:50:04 I was like, is this for real?
0:50:06 – I mean, I would think maybe he put that in there
0:50:08 just as a job hazard, you know?
0:50:10 It’s like, if I have to go to the hospital to get,
0:50:12 you know, stitches, like that takes away
0:50:13 from my 500 euro iron.
0:50:16 So I’ve got to upcharge every time I get hit.
0:50:17 And then he’s like, well,
0:50:18 as long as I can play that card properly,
0:50:20 like don’t end up in the hospital,
0:50:22 maybe put away a couple hundred more euro
0:50:23 on the way out, you know?
0:50:24 – Yeah.
0:50:25 – I was a wedding photographer in my first career.
0:50:27 I did that for a decade.
0:50:30 And so I have definitely seen the other side of that,
0:50:31 which is people showed up at weddings
0:50:34 and we actually proved it one time.
0:50:35 I shot a wedding on a Friday night
0:50:39 and then my business partner shot a wedding on a Saturday night
0:50:40 and we were editing the weddings the next week
0:50:44 and we saw the exact same person in the exact same outfit
0:50:45 at one wedding and the next wedding.
0:50:46 We actually went and asked the bride and groom
0:50:48 when we saw them next, like, “Do you know that person?”
0:50:49 They’re like, “No, no, I don’t know that person.
0:50:50 I thought that was me.”
0:50:51 And both of them had the same story.
0:50:52 Like, “No, I didn’t know that person.”
0:50:54 Same venues in town.
0:50:57 So there are definitely people who crash weddings.
0:50:59 I didn’t know anybody was hired to crash weddings.
0:51:02 – There’s there for the free food and drinks.
0:51:04 – Yeah, yeah, I think so, the social aspects.
0:51:05 I mean, there’s some nice weddings out there,
0:51:08 but to do it professionally, that is next level.
0:51:09 I will tell you, that is next level.
0:51:11 – Yeah, there’s a niche for everything.
0:51:13 There’s a side hustle for everything.
0:51:14 Jared, this has been awesome.
0:51:18 These are 10 scary, good, loosely Halloween-related,
0:51:20 some more than others, and I appreciate you hanging out
0:51:21 and sharing this with us.
0:51:24 So you got the agency, you got 201creative.com.
0:51:26 You’re hosting the Niche Pursuits podcast.
0:51:28 You got the Weekend Growth newsletter
0:51:31 at weekendgrowth.com/newsletter.
0:51:33 You’ve got the Amazon influencer business.
0:51:34 You got a lot of stuff going on.
0:51:36 A man of many online side hustles.
0:51:37 What’s got you excited these days?
0:51:41 – I do, I do, yeah, the marketing agency is my day job.
0:51:44 That’s what I do, but I just feel so stimulated
0:51:46 and I love doing side hustles.
0:51:47 I love trying them.
0:51:48 I love seeing what works.
0:51:49 I love just getting that inspiration.
0:51:51 You mentioned it, I write about it every week
0:51:52 at the newsletter and that’s free
0:51:53 if people want to just see what I’m doing.
0:51:54 What am I working on right now?
0:51:56 Yeah, Amazon influencer, I’ve been doing that
0:51:57 for about a year and a half now.
0:51:58 That was really successful out of the gate.
0:51:59 That one really caught fire.
0:52:01 And so I share about that all the time
0:52:02 and we’re coming up into Q4.
0:52:04 So that’s the fun time on Amazon influencer.
0:52:05 – How many videos have you made?
0:52:06 – 1,250 now.
0:52:08 I’m actually gonna go make some videos
0:52:09 right after this podcast.
0:52:11 The house is empty, my wife and the kids are gone.
0:52:13 I’m gonna go make some videos right after this podcast.
0:52:14 I’m trying to get to about 1,350
0:52:17 before the Black Friday sale season hits.
0:52:21 – Okay, you can’t have bought 1,300 things off of Amazon.
0:52:23 Where are you getting the stuff to film about?
0:52:25 – So yeah, we buy probably a good amount on Amazon
0:52:27 but we bought nowhere near 1,300.
0:52:29 But first off, you can make different types of videos
0:52:30 about a single product.
0:52:33 Maybe you have like several cell phone cases.
0:52:34 So you can make a video about your cell phone case
0:52:36 and you can kind of compare your old cell phone case
0:52:37 with your new cell phone case.
0:52:39 And that’s another video, right?
0:52:42 You can also get creative and go to neighbor’s houses
0:52:43 and film.
0:52:44 If you can go down to your neighbor’s house,
0:52:44 you can like sit there.
0:52:46 You can use your coffee machine for a couple minutes,
0:52:48 couple, maybe an hour or however long it takes
0:52:49 to figure it out and then make a video on that.
0:52:50 I have not done this.
0:52:53 I’ve done it once where I was at an Airbnb
0:52:54 and I actually had used a lot of the stuff
0:52:55 in the kitchen all week.
0:52:57 And then I was like, oh, last day I made a bunch of videos
0:52:59 about all the stuff I’d used in that Airbnb.
0:53:01 But a lot of people will actually make that their model
0:53:02 and go out to the Airbnbs and rent them
0:53:03 and then film all the products there.
0:53:05 – Okay, okay, nice.
0:53:08 – So that’s how you can get more videos than what you have.
0:53:10 Usually you wanna start with at least a base of stuff.
0:53:11 And hopefully you have some stuff,
0:53:12 but you don’t have to have bought on Amazon
0:53:14 as long as it’s available on Amazon.
0:53:15 So that’s another key factor.
0:53:17 – Right, do you find that it is just a factor
0:53:22 of creating the content and building that library
0:53:26 of a thousand plus videos that that’s what drives revenue
0:53:29 or is there other specific tactics that go into it?
0:53:30 – Honestly, no, not really.
0:53:31 Not that I’ve figured out.
0:53:33 I mean, it is a side hustle for me.
0:53:34 So I haven’t like sat there.
0:53:35 But they don’t give you many metrics.
0:53:36 They don’t tell you a lot.
0:53:37 It’s really about, you know,
0:53:40 you’re trying to make a good video
0:53:42 and make as many of them as you can.
0:53:44 ‘Cause I found no correlation to the ones
0:53:45 that end up making me most of my money.
0:53:47 And it is the 80/20 rule, by the way.
0:53:48 Like almost everything else in life.
0:53:49 – Totally.
0:53:51 – I don’t make the same amount off every video.
0:53:53 I make 80% of my revenue
0:53:56 or more off of probably less than 20% of my videos.
0:53:57 And so it’s really just about taking those swings
0:53:58 at the plate to try to figure out
0:53:59 which ones you’re gonna connect on.
0:54:02 – Yeah, this is, we started doing some of the kids
0:54:05 like Lego videos and trying to make them,
0:54:07 you know, their first passive income on the internet
0:54:09 is like, I remember giving them that 20 bucks
0:54:11 like over Christmas season last year.
0:54:14 And they’d be like, cool, like pause right there.
0:54:16 You just made passive income on the internet.
0:54:17 I don’t think you have an appreciation
0:54:19 for like how cool this is, you know?
0:54:21 And how easy this was for you.
0:54:24 So I will back you up that the influencer program
0:54:26 is probably the easiest money that I’ve ever made online.
0:54:29 I’ve uploaded very, very few this year
0:54:32 and I’m looking at 669 bucks so far this year.
0:54:34 And I probably have less than 50 videos live.
0:54:36 So it’s, it works.
0:54:40 So it’s a really cool program that they’ve got.
0:54:42 Like anything, does it stay easy forever?
0:54:43 Does it last forever?
0:54:46 Probably not, but if you can get accepted into it,
0:54:48 they still haven’t said like what level
0:54:50 of social following you need.
0:54:52 They just make sure you apply with your YouTube
0:54:55 or Instagram or they want some link to a social platform
0:54:57 even though you don’t have to post any of your videos
0:54:58 on that social platform.
0:54:59 – Correct, yeah.
0:55:01 And it’s also based on engagement.
0:55:03 So it’s like this combination of how many followers you have
0:55:05 but they want to see accounts that actually
0:55:08 get some engagement but a lot of us have Instagram accounts
0:55:11 that have over a thousand followers just from friends
0:55:13 and family and work colleagues over the years.
0:55:15 And so you can flip that into a business account.
0:55:18 It doesn’t really change the outward account itself
0:55:19 and a lot of people will have success
0:55:20 with something like that
0:55:22 or maybe a TikTok account they started.
0:55:23 So it’s worth applying.
0:55:24 It’s definitely worth applying.
0:55:25 – Very good.
0:55:27 Well, check him out 201creative.com.
0:55:29 John Dykstra gave you a plug last month.
0:55:31 So appreciate that.
0:55:33 And weekendgrowth.com/newsletter
0:55:35 to stay in touch with everything
0:55:36 that Jared has got going on.
0:55:38 If you liked this episode,
0:55:41 I know you get a kick out of our annual Thanksgiving series
0:55:43 of creative side hustles.
0:55:45 I think there’s a Spotify playlist for that.
0:55:48 If not, I’m happy to make one
0:55:49 and link that up in the show notes.
0:55:53 This coming Thanksgiving I think will be our seventh annual
0:55:54 on that 10 creative side hustles.
0:55:55 Like the most interesting stuff
0:55:58 that I’ve come across over the course of the year.
0:56:00 Now that’s kind of the shotgun approach.
0:56:02 So if you’re looking for something a little more curated,
0:56:04 what you do is go to hustle.show.
0:56:07 You answer a few short multiple choice questions
0:56:09 and it’ll build you a personalized playlist
0:56:12 of eight to 10 recommended episodes based on your answers.
0:56:14 Again, hustle.show for that.
0:56:16 Big thanks to Jared for sharing his insight.
0:56:17 Big thanks to our sponsors
0:56:19 for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:56:22 You can hit up side hustlenation.com/deals
0:56:25 for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
0:56:27 Thank you for supporting the advertisers
0:56:28 that support the show.
0:56:29 That is it for me.
0:56:30 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:56:31 If you’re finding value in the show,
0:56:33 the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend.
0:56:35 So fire off that text message
0:56:38 to somebody who loves creative business ideas,
0:56:39 somebody who loves Halloween and making money.
0:56:42 There’s gotta be somebody on that Venn diagram of yours.
0:56:43 So I appreciate you sharing that.
0:56:45 Until next time, let’s go out there
0:56:46 and make something happen
0:56:48 and I’ll catch you in the next edition
0:56:49 of the side hustle show.

0:00:05 A thousand bucks a week selling digital products, what’s up, what’s up, Nick Loper here, welcome
0:00:10 to The Side Hustle Show because your nine to five may make you a living, but your five
0:00:11 to nine makes you alive.
0:00:16 And whether you’re looking for a completely new side hustle or to layer on an extra income
0:00:19 stream to what you’re already working on, you’re in the right place.
0:00:23 Today, we’re catching up with a long time listener, a long time friend of the show who
0:00:28 over the last couple of years has been building up an Etsy shop selling printable files, other
0:00:35 digital products to the tune of four grand a month from the flooringgirl.com Debbie Gartner.
0:00:36 Welcome back to The Side Hustle Show.
0:00:37 Thank you.
0:00:38 It’s so good to be back.
0:00:40 It’s been about five years.
0:00:41 I can’t believe it’s been five years.
0:00:42 I know.
0:00:44 So we’re long overdue to catch up.
0:00:49 And in the case of the Etsy business, this is not an overnight success, you know, upload
0:00:53 something and the passive income starts flowing in.
0:00:58 But it is a business where you can consistently add digital inventory.
0:01:00 And those efforts really do start to compound over time.
0:01:02 And today we’re going three rounds with Debbie.
0:01:07 Round one is building that Etsy business from the ground up, the kind of products you’re
0:01:10 selling, how she’s making them, the marketing best practices that go into it.
0:01:14 Round two is donate a business idea, stick around for that, see what she’s got in store
0:01:15 for us.
0:01:19 And round three is the triple threat, a marketing tactic that’s working right now is a new or
0:01:24 new to her tool that she’s loving right now and her favorite book from the last 12 months.
0:01:30 But let’s kick it off with round one and the inspiration to start playing around with.
0:01:35 I mean, this has kind of been somewhat of a popular side hustle, the dream of selling
0:01:37 digital products and making money in your sleep.
0:01:43 Is this originally in the flooring girl, you know, home decor type of space?
0:01:45 Like what kind of printables do you come up with?
0:01:50 So that was my original plan, but that plan did not work out that well, to be honest.
0:01:52 So I just had to pivot.
0:01:57 It seems like pivoting is the story of my life as it is for every entrepreneur.
0:01:59 And I’m sure you’re familiar with that.
0:02:04 I think when I met you, Nick, I was $135,000 in debt.
0:02:09 And then after I was on the show, my older cousin heard me and then she thought I was
0:02:12 like really famous or something because I was on your show.
0:02:13 Love it.
0:02:14 Love it.
0:02:15 And then she started running.
0:02:17 My parents were like, what are you talking about?
0:02:22 And she kept explaining how wonderful I was and how wonderful the show was.
0:02:25 But honestly, it gave me a lot of inspiration.
0:02:31 And from there, I was determined to get out of debt by the next Thanksgiving.
0:02:32 And I actually exceeded that.
0:02:37 I got there by bestial day, so July 14.
0:02:41 And then I paid off my mortgage, which is another $305,000.
0:02:45 I fixed up stuff in my home, everything that was broken.
0:02:48 And started my retirement fund again, blah, blah, blah.
0:02:52 But life is not always a simple straight line, right?
0:02:53 No.
0:02:55 In fact, probably rarely is.
0:02:56 Right.
0:02:57 Exactly.
0:03:04 So then two years later, I went to the doctor for a routine colonoscopy.
0:03:06 And then they whisked me off to the ER.
0:03:08 So that was a lot of fun.
0:03:14 And it turned out, unbeknownst to me, even though I was feeling fine, I had dangerously
0:03:20 high blood pressure, where they said I narrowly avoided having a stroke or a heart attack.
0:03:21 Yeah.
0:03:22 So it was pretty scary.
0:03:24 It was just getting my health back.
0:03:25 And I did whatever I could.
0:03:29 I changed my eating habits, all that sort of stuff.
0:03:32 And to make a long story short, I got better.
0:03:35 And also, at the same time, improved my autoimmune disease.
0:03:40 So it was a narrow escape with a good outcome, I guess you could say.
0:03:41 Yeah.
0:03:42 I’m happy to hear you’re on the mend.
0:03:43 Thank you.
0:03:44 Thanks.
0:03:45 Yeah.
0:03:46 So it’s been a couple of years.
0:03:51 And then I decided to really turn over a new leaf and really, really focus on things
0:03:53 I really enjoyed.
0:03:55 So I was no longer worried about the money.
0:03:57 I just wanted to do things I liked.
0:04:03 So I’ve been blogging, but I kind of honestly, I don’t like writing and I just got sick of
0:04:04 blogging.
0:04:07 So I did Etsy as like a creative outlet.
0:04:12 I had no idea that I would like it so much, but it was actually a lot of fun.
0:04:17 So that’s what I’ve been doing and focusing my time on because I feel like I’m helping
0:04:18 people.
0:04:19 Yeah.
0:04:20 The floating girl has been around forever, this site.
0:04:23 You’re like, you get sick about talking about, you know, whatever the seasonal paint
0:04:24 colors are.
0:04:25 Right.
0:04:26 Right.
0:04:28 I’ve been doing it since 2010.
0:04:30 So it was a long time, right?
0:04:31 Yeah.
0:04:33 I was then kind of trying to improve my health.
0:04:35 I was stressed, blah, blah, blah.
0:04:38 So I then created a whole bunch of health tracker.
0:04:40 I did a blood pressure chart.
0:04:42 I mean, I sell it for like a dollar or something.
0:04:48 It’s not like a big money maker, but I felt like I was helping people and I was helping
0:04:54 me at the same time drive my blood pressure down and eating healthier foods and avoiding
0:04:56 things with more cholesterol and stuff like that.
0:04:59 So I made several things like that.
0:05:00 Okay.
0:05:04 Well, what’s going on in my life right now, you know, starting with a kind of a scratch-your-own-itch
0:05:05 approach?
0:05:06 Exactly.
0:05:07 Exactly.
0:05:11 So what I was doing was failing, but I knew that Etsy had a big opportunity.
0:05:16 So you know, just like with blogging, you start with, what do you know?
0:05:17 What do you like?
0:05:19 And how can you leverage that?
0:05:24 So the simplest thing, like a blood pressure, one page, you know, tracker is all I did.
0:05:26 I did other things like that.
0:05:33 And then I started getting into games because I’ve always loved games.
0:05:39 So I created a July 4th trivia game just because I had a blog post on my website that was for
0:05:42 July 4th fireworks, you know, in my county.
0:05:44 So I did that.
0:05:47 And of course, it was, I don’t know, November.
0:05:48 So it wasn’t very relevant.
0:05:49 Oh, okay.
0:05:51 You got to skate where the puck is going, right?
0:05:52 Okay.
0:05:54 Come July, there’s going to be some demand for this.
0:05:55 Okay.
0:05:56 Exactly.
0:06:01 So then I said, okay, I made it done, but it proves to me that there’s an opportunity
0:06:02 here.
0:06:04 So now let me do another trivia game.
0:06:07 So I did a trivia game for Thanksgiving.
0:06:12 And then I said, okay, well, there’s Hanukkah and there’s Christmas and you just keep going
0:06:13 through all the different holidays.
0:06:14 I would do that.
0:06:16 I would do different games.
0:06:19 And I just had fun with that because it was really interesting.
0:06:21 I just enjoyed it.
0:06:24 There was the solar eclipse this year.
0:06:27 So I did several solar eclipse games.
0:06:34 So whatever is kind of of the moment or coming up, let’s call it two to three months in advance,
0:06:35 I would do it.
0:06:39 And then I would just keep doing different things I was interested in or that I wanted
0:06:42 to learn more about.
0:06:44 And that’s kind of how I did it.
0:06:49 At some point, I had this realization that when I was younger, like in high school, I
0:06:54 had this conversation with one of my friends in math class, like what do you want to do
0:06:55 when you grow up?
0:06:58 And I told them I wanted to be a puzzle master.
0:06:59 Okay.
0:07:00 Okay.
0:07:05 You know, like Will Schwartz does, except at that point in time, Will Schwartz, I didn’t
0:07:06 know who he was.
0:07:10 He wasn’t anyone famous, but I’m like, I want to do something like that.
0:07:11 But there’s no such job.
0:07:15 So I just went to college and had a regular job.
0:07:21 Yeah, like a virtual escape room coordinator or that’s a really interesting one.
0:07:26 I had a similar net because now you’re making money doing that, like taking it back to high
0:07:27 school.
0:07:31 I had, you know, my job shadow day would have been junior or senior year was going down
0:07:36 to like the sports broadcast office for Channel 5 in Seattle.
0:07:39 And I was like, yeah, it’s super irrelevant to what I’m doing today.
0:07:44 And then my buddy was like, you’re kind of in media, you know, that seems actually pretty
0:07:45 relevant.
0:07:49 So I was like, oh, it’s kind of this weird full circle moment of, yeah, I guess it’s
0:07:51 kind of in this broadcast media in a way.
0:07:52 Exactly.
0:07:56 There’s so many things I’ve done in my life in different jobs, different courses I took
0:08:04 in college or high school or just, you know, continuing ed courses or hobbies or anything.
0:08:07 And so then I just kept going through my brain like, what do I like?
0:08:08 What am I interested in?
0:08:13 And then I would try to understand is there a need for whatever that is, do a little bit
0:08:19 of keyword research, try some stuff out, some of it worked, some of it didn’t then do more
0:08:22 of what works like rinse and repeat.
0:08:23 And that’s basically what it is.
0:08:28 So I’m picturing like trivial game, like trivial pursuit where I’ve got a bunch of these cards,
0:08:32 I got these, you know, card, you know, question cards that people are cutting out at home is
0:08:36 just like a big list, like tell me just like a little bit of the structure of what the
0:08:37 product looks like.
0:08:38 Exactly.
0:08:43 So you can’t use trivial pursuit because that’s a trademark, but you can take games
0:08:48 like that or something else and call them something else and make sure you don’t use
0:08:51 the trade colors of them or anything like that.
0:08:54 But yes, that’s exactly the idea.
0:08:59 And what happens is when you make some products, Essie recommends other products that are
0:09:04 like this and you kind of can’t help but notice other games.
0:09:08 So as I start creating more games, I see more games that are available.
0:09:12 And then I try those and then some work, some don’t.
0:09:16 And then whichever ones of those work, I make more of those.
0:09:18 And then I get more suggestions.
0:09:24 And then it gets my brain going because I am not naturally a creative person, like not
0:09:25 at all.
0:09:26 I don’t know.
0:09:27 I’ll give yourself some credit.
0:09:29 You’ve been creating content on the internet for 14 years here.
0:09:32 Well, you get better at it.
0:09:34 So the point is you don’t need to be creative.
0:09:36 My mom would always say, you’re so creative.
0:09:37 I’d say, no, I’m not.
0:09:42 Really honestly, I’m good at creative problem solving, but I’m not a creative person.
0:09:47 But it doesn’t matter because you can just learn it because as you do it, you become
0:09:48 more creative.
0:09:51 You know, just like I did not know anything about flooring, but you learn it.
0:09:53 And then I became good at home decor.
0:10:00 So you just, as your interest level increases, your curiosity does too.
0:10:02 And then so does your knowledge.
0:10:03 They all work together.
0:10:07 And then ideas, they just come to you.
0:10:09 It’s like, I don’t even try anymore.
0:10:13 I can, I mean, you’ve seen one of my things where I wrote, like, I have a thousand and
0:10:17 fourteen ideas of things I can create on Etsy.
0:10:20 This is on the upcoming product to-do list.
0:10:21 Yeah.
0:10:24 Like if there was only more hours in the day, here’s what I would get done.
0:10:25 Exactly.
0:10:29 And my list, I was afraid when I started, I would quickly run out of ideas.
0:10:31 I didn’t even know what to do in the first place, right?
0:10:32 Yeah.
0:10:38 I would log keyword, upcoming article list and video list kind of looks like it’s like,
0:10:41 because we’re adding more all the time, like adding more faster than we create this stuff.
0:10:42 Exactly.
0:10:43 And that’s what happens.
0:10:47 It’s the same thing that happened with my blog post, like a customer would say something
0:10:49 to me or ask me a question.
0:10:54 And not only would I answer it, but then I’d say, oh, that’s a blog post idea.
0:10:57 And then I would write it down, do it.
0:11:02 And my experience has been the more ideas I do, the more I come up with.
0:11:06 So my to-do list never gets shorter.
0:11:08 I think that’s the mark of a creative person.
0:11:09 Yeah.
0:11:10 Give yourself some credit.
0:11:11 Thanks.
0:11:15 So starting, you know, 4th of July, Trivia game, and now I kind of have a template that
0:11:19 I can, you know, maybe this got a little bit of traction so I can pivot that to all the
0:11:25 other major holidays and events and create the same product, kind of like Monopoly has-
0:11:26 Exactly.
0:11:29 Every different city has their own Monopoly type of game or something like that.
0:11:32 And it’s, well, you didn’t have to start completely from scratch because you had some templates
0:11:33 built out.
0:11:34 Exactly.
0:11:36 And you just keep reusing the templates.
0:11:43 And then you just come up with other ideas, use the same template so it makes it faster.
0:11:45 And not only that, you just get better.
0:11:48 And I try to do things I already know about.
0:11:52 I also use AI to help me, and we can talk about that later.
0:11:57 But I pick topics that I like and have an interest in.
0:11:59 And because of that, I can do them quickly.
0:12:05 So now I can pretty much get each game done in like, let’s call it 30 minutes.
0:12:07 And then I can list it in 30 minutes.
0:12:09 That’s not how it started.
0:12:11 But after you get the hang of it, you do that.
0:12:14 And then you say, oh, here’s another game.
0:12:18 And then you adapt the original template for the second game.
0:12:22 And then you can keep going down and down and you can change the topics.
0:12:30 Like you can do a trivia game about this hobby, or this sport, or this food, or these types
0:12:34 of books, or these types of TV shows, or whatever it is.
0:12:35 Yeah.
0:12:36 Or this football team.
0:12:37 Or yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:12:41 You can see how that would be even a cool gift for somebody who’s a Washington Huskies fan
0:12:42 or something.
0:12:44 And you’re like, hey, do you remember this play against this team, or do you remember
0:12:45 this key player?
0:12:46 Yeah.
0:12:48 I think it would be, once you start going down that rabbit hole, it could be pretty
0:12:49 endless.
0:12:50 Yes.
0:12:54 And Debbie, in just a moment, including her favorite Etsy keyword research tools, how
0:12:59 AI can help you accelerate your product creation, how she prices these digital products, and
0:13:04 a whole lot more right after this.
0:13:08 Being an entrepreneur and being able to work remotely definitely has its perks.
0:13:13 I’ve recorded podcasts everywhere from Vietnam to Italy, drafted newsletters from Japan,
0:13:17 hosted mastermind meetings from Spain, ended up being the middle of the night to get to
0:13:21 the US business hours, and outlined courses in Mexico.
0:13:25 The common thread of all of these trips, though, is Airbnb.
0:13:29 We love being able to get exactly what we’re looking for in a place to stay and have a
0:13:34 more local experience than staying in some giant hotel chain.
0:13:35 And you know me.
0:13:38 I’m always thinking about the next side hustle idea, the next income stream, right?
0:13:43 And one that’s at the top of the list is hosting our place on Airbnb while we’re traveling.
0:13:45 That way, the house doesn’t have to sit empty.
0:13:49 We could use the income to help pay for the trip, and we’ve heard from several successful
0:13:51 Airbnb hosts on the show.
0:13:56 And what’s interesting is a lot of them started with almost that exact strategy, running their
0:14:00 place or even a spare room while they’re out of town.
0:14:04 Taking inspiration from that, you might have an Airbnb right under your nose.
0:14:07 In fact, your home might be worth more than you think.
0:14:17 You can find out how much at Airbnb.com/host to find out how much your home is worth.
0:14:21 Lots of scrappy side hustlers start their business with just their personal phone number.
0:14:22 And I love that.
0:14:26 But at a certain point, you can’t be limited to just your cell phone and notes app to get
0:14:27 your work done.
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0:14:50 One of my favorite features is their AI-powered call transcripts and summaries so you can
0:14:55 streamline client communication and have a summary of every phone call with action items
0:14:56 right when you hang up.
0:14:59 That means no more note-taking or forgotten to-do items.
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0:15:33 To get it started, did it start with keyword research?
0:15:38 Had you come up with the idea to do a game aside from the high school math, I want to
0:15:39 be a puzzle master.
0:15:40 I always want to get it to gaming.
0:15:41 I don’t know, honestly.
0:15:43 I probably read it somewhere.
0:15:44 I probably saw one.
0:15:45 Oh, no, no, no.
0:15:48 It was because of July 4th, as I said.
0:15:54 And then I said, I know a lot of July 4th trivia because I’ve been to, I don’t know, Mount
0:15:58 Vernon and where a bunch of presidents lived.
0:16:02 And I was like, oh, you know, which president died on July 4th?
0:16:03 And I just started stuff like that.
0:16:05 Is this where AI comes into play?
0:16:09 And then you get a fact check, I suppose, like, did that actually happen?
0:16:11 Right, right, exactly.
0:16:17 So then after I started selling more, then my next question is, how do I do this more
0:16:18 efficiently?
0:16:25 That’s when I tried AI and using it on chatGPT, which is free or Claude AI or different ones
0:16:26 like that.
0:16:27 It doesn’t really matter.
0:16:31 And then I would, I purposely pick things I know.
0:16:37 So if I’m doing something about the presidents, I would know and I would, you know, anything
0:16:42 I’m not sure about either is off the list or I may say, is that true?
0:16:49 And then just Google the information because AI can definitely give you the wrong information.
0:16:55 So like, I would not do a holiday like Diwali or watch, I’ll end up doing it, but I don’t
0:16:57 know anything about Diwali.
0:17:02 So I’d be having to research every single question to make sure it’s correct.
0:17:07 I mean, the worst thing you can do is have a question with a wrong answer and I have
0:17:09 and you will get a bad review.
0:17:14 So I pick stuff generally that I know or that I mostly know.
0:17:18 And then while I’m doing it, I have fun doing it.
0:17:22 And then I learned some new facts as well, like the eclipse.
0:17:23 I love the eclipse.
0:17:26 I’ve been planning to go there since 2017.
0:17:32 And then when it was coming up, I was like, Oh, I’m going to go because I can drive somewhere
0:17:34 upstate New York and go and see it.
0:17:37 And then, Oh, let me make it more fun for me.
0:17:40 I’ll create a trivia game for that.
0:17:41 And it makes the whole event more exciting.
0:17:42 Nice.
0:17:43 And then, okay.
0:17:44 Yeah, that makes sense.
0:17:48 Are there any tools that you like on the keyword research side to try and figure out?
0:17:52 Well, it’s still quite a bit of effort to create this thing, especially the first few things.
0:17:55 I want to make sure there’s some level of demand there.
0:17:56 Exactly.
0:18:01 So that is so important and is one of the big misses that many people make.
0:18:03 So I highly recommend doing that.
0:18:05 I use two keyword tools.
0:18:08 I’m not very original in this, but they are very practical.
0:18:12 So I use E-rank and I use Insight Factory.
0:18:19 And then very importantly, I care about market research, which is, are people actually buying
0:18:20 it?
0:18:24 So not just searching for it, but actually have user buyer demand.
0:18:29 And I can find that out on both Insight Factory and E-rank.
0:18:32 So it’s real actionable data.
0:18:36 If I’m poking around in those tools, are there any metrics that I’m looking for in
0:18:40 terms of, I don’t know, they give you volume, do they give you buyer, you know, estimated
0:18:42 sales volume, competitiveness, anything like that?
0:18:48 In general, you always want that people are buying stuff and that there’s low competition
0:18:51 or else medium and medium, but you don’t want to have high competition.
0:18:54 That’s the biggest mistake most people make.
0:19:01 They’ll do something very generic like a planner or a calendar, which is fine to do, but you
0:19:04 need everything to be more specific.
0:19:10 But for me, I really focus on the sales data, which is sales.
0:19:13 I know that sounds so stupid when I say it, but that is what it is.
0:19:20 So you can’t go by revenue because the keyword research tools are not accurate at all on the
0:19:27 revenue because it takes the original list price and not the actual sale price or the
0:19:28 discounted price.
0:19:33 But that’s not what anyone buys it at, so you need to use the sales and then you look
0:19:37 at how basically the velocity, how many you’re selling per week or per month or that sort
0:19:38 of thing.
0:19:39 Okay.
0:19:41 So sales meaning like number of transactions.
0:19:42 Yes.
0:19:43 Thank you.
0:19:44 Thank you for clarifying.
0:19:45 Yes.
0:19:46 And then sales velocity.
0:19:47 Okay.
0:19:49 I imagine for some of the seasonal stuff, it might look like nothing is moving, but is
0:19:53 there a way to go back into, well, last November, this is what happened?
0:19:54 Yes.
0:19:59 So you can go back and do that or you can just use your logic in your head.
0:20:05 Like if it’s for Halloween, that’s basically going to sell in September and October.
0:20:06 So just do the math.
0:20:07 Okay.
0:20:08 Cool.
0:20:09 Yeah.
0:20:10 Either way or do division.
0:20:11 How long has the product been around for?
0:20:12 How many days?
0:20:15 You know, use a calculator if you need to, but that’s what I do.
0:20:16 Yes.
0:20:17 Okay.
0:20:20 I’m assuming Canva to like build these out, but I really don’t know.
0:20:21 Yes.
0:20:24 It depends on the product, but I mainly use Canva.
0:20:27 I also do some spreadsheets because I love spreadsheets.
0:20:28 So you could do that.
0:20:32 I see some people doing some things on Word as well.
0:20:37 Anything that has artistic elements of any sort I do in Canva.
0:20:38 I’m not a designer.
0:20:40 I can’t do anything advanced.
0:20:41 I just do simple stuff.
0:20:42 Yeah.
0:20:45 Speaking of spreadsheets, I came across this business last month.
0:20:47 It was called Spreadsheets Crafter.
0:20:51 And I don’t know if they sell on Etsy or not, but they sell a buttload through their site
0:20:57 and they’re driving their own traffic from TikTok, from Instagram, and it’s like $35
0:21:02 pay period budgeting template and things kind of in that budgeting, you know, personal finance
0:21:04 type of space, just printing money.
0:21:06 No cost of goods, no cost of delivery.
0:21:08 You could discount it to whatever you want.
0:21:09 It’s still incremental.
0:21:11 It just was really interesting.
0:21:16 And like, are you pretty much relying on Etsy search and discovery or are you able to drive
0:21:20 your own outside traffic to some of the stuff through your own social media, through the
0:21:23 site, through influencer partnerships, anything like that?
0:21:25 So there are two ways to approach it.
0:21:31 So first of all, let me talk about Etsy for one second because I consider that phase one.
0:21:38 But with Etsy, you honestly do not need any, any, no source of traffic whatsoever.
0:21:43 Once you learn how to do Etsy and Etsy SEO, you just put the product on there and it can
0:21:45 sell over and over.
0:21:48 I do not use any form of social media.
0:21:53 I don’t even use generally email, but we’ve got to come back to email in a second.
0:21:57 I don’t send any traffic from my website or any website.
0:22:00 I do nothing, nothing for marketing.
0:22:05 And yes, I have tried and no, I general, I don’t think it’s a very good use of time.
0:22:06 Fair enough.
0:22:11 Going back, I forgot to clarify on the like e-rank or insight factory.
0:22:14 I think you mentioned, hey, look at the sales, look at the sales velocity.
0:22:18 Is there a minimum metric there like, oh, I want to make sure it’s moving 10 transactions
0:22:20 per week or something like that?
0:22:24 In general, if you feel it’s worth your time, then you do it.
0:22:29 So let me go back to what you said before, which is there’s no cost of goods or anything
0:22:33 like that and there’s no work once you need to do it.
0:22:39 Like I don’t need to make any of this stuff or so anything or package it or send it or
0:22:40 pay for postage.
0:22:43 So the margins are pretty high.
0:22:49 The margins, you can easily on digital products make 70% margin versus on something like print
0:22:53 on demand, which is, you know, a different story.
0:22:57 But those people are usually only making 10% margin if they are lucky.
0:22:58 Sure.
0:22:59 Yeah.
0:23:01 It’s physical product, shipping involved, all sorts of stuff.
0:23:02 Right.
0:23:05 And you have transaction fees and PayPal fees and like all that sort of stuff.
0:23:07 So 70% is a good amount.
0:23:12 And honestly, if you were selling it on your own site, you would still have some of those,
0:23:17 you know, fees fees for whatever program you’re using, plus you’re going to have PayPal fees,
0:23:18 that sort of thing.
0:23:19 So you can’t get around.
0:23:21 You’re like, you can never have 100%.
0:23:24 But then you have to think, okay, is that worth my time to make it?
0:23:30 Most of these products I can make pretty quickly, like I can maybe spend an hour on it and then
0:23:31 be done.
0:23:36 That’s the combination of making it and listing it and all the listing images and everything
0:23:37 like that.
0:23:39 So then you have to say, what is it worth it?
0:23:45 Like what could I price it at and then guesstimate in your head or on a calculator.
0:23:48 I just do it in my head, like how much you can make, right?
0:23:54 So for me, I try to, at a minimum, look at something that I think could sell at least
0:23:55 once a week.
0:23:56 Yeah.
0:24:01 And sometimes I find that I end up making much more than I expect to, sometimes a little
0:24:02 bit less.
0:24:07 They kind of average out, but that is what I use as a benchmark.
0:24:13 If I’m a new beginner, I just want to try to make a few sales, and then I want to keep
0:24:15 stretching the bar and make more and more.
0:24:16 Yeah.
0:24:20 And that’s the stage that I’m in, like that thrill of that first, making money in your
0:24:22 sleep kind of passive income type of thing.
0:24:26 I put something out on the internet, somebody bought it, some stranger searched for this
0:24:27 thing and they bought my thing.
0:24:32 And that’s a really exciting moment and probably quite addicting where he’s like, well, shoot,
0:24:36 how do I do more of that and keep leveling up and keep creating more of those products?
0:24:38 That’s a typical price point for something like this.
0:24:46 What depends what you’re selling, but I sell most of my items between like $1.49 to $10.
0:24:52 So a lot of them may be in the $3 to $5 range, but that’s kind of the range of what I do.
0:24:56 So they’re really quick and simple to do and rinse and repeat.
0:25:01 And as you said before, you can take the same idea and then just swap out some stuff for
0:25:06 a different holiday or a different occasion like a birthday or something like that.
0:25:07 So it gets much quicker.
0:25:08 Yeah, totally.
0:25:12 And some of the stuff, they think about not necessarily who you’re competing with on
0:25:13 Etsy, which is certainly a factor.
0:25:17 But at the low price point, a simple blood pressure tracker, you compete with people
0:25:19 just making their own spreadsheet for free.
0:25:22 It’s like, well, it can’t be that expensive because it’s super simple to make.
0:25:26 Whereas a more complex trivia game, of course, is going to command a higher price point.
0:25:31 Did you ever go and shop these to a Hasbro or anything like, did you want to license
0:25:37 this IP that I created and turn this into something that’s on the shelves at Target?
0:25:40 Well, that’s another idea, but I haven’t even gone there.
0:25:43 I am looking for simple in my life now.
0:25:49 So since I had that blood pressure scare, simple, I do simple everything.
0:25:53 People do escape rooms, and that’s a great example of a more complex game.
0:25:56 And I have been meaning to do that, but I generally don’t do that.
0:26:01 What I will do is take several simple games and bundle them together.
0:26:08 So instead of selling one game, I may be selling five games or 10 games and do it that way.
0:26:14 And then I also will sometimes take the same games and put those in bundles of other products
0:26:16 because they can apply to anything.
0:26:17 Got it.
0:26:18 Got it.
0:26:19 Yeah.
0:26:21 And it increases the average order value and perceived value.
0:26:22 It makes sense.
0:26:23 Exactly.
0:26:26 So I often think about my business in layers.
0:26:30 So you know how in the winter you’re supposed to wear layers to stay warmer?
0:26:33 I think about the same thing about insulating my business.
0:26:36 So it makes it harder for that money to erode.
0:26:42 So I have been working on a lot of things the last year or so to improve my average job
0:26:43 size.
0:26:47 That’s what I call it from the flooring business, but whatever you want to call it, you get
0:26:48 the idea, right?
0:26:49 Yeah, yeah.
0:26:56 I trade people up to a higher price item or get people to buy two items or get people
0:26:58 to buy three items.
0:26:59 That is what I’m doing.
0:27:04 Etsy just came out with a new feature about a week or so ago where you can bundle three
0:27:06 items together as well.
0:27:07 Oh, cool.
0:27:08 So that’s one way I do it.
0:27:13 Another way I do it is in the listing images, you might want to get the matching item.
0:27:19 So if I was doing something for Halloween, let’s just say, then I might have 10 different
0:27:20 Halloween games.
0:27:26 I could take one and be like, “You might also like these,” or I could take one and say,
0:27:29 “Or you could get a better value by buying all 10.”
0:27:32 There are different ways to do it, and you try different ways.
0:27:36 No, I think that’s really smart to try and increase that order size because, again, it’s
0:27:40 like, well, it doesn’t cost you anything extra to include one extra link in the delivery
0:27:41 email or something.
0:27:42 Right.
0:27:43 That makes a lot of sense.
0:27:48 But I should note here, we’re not mentioning the name of the store for the sake of copycats,
0:27:52 similar to some of the other Etsy-related episodes that we’ve done in the past.
0:27:57 Stuff can be relatively easy to duplicate and rip off, so we want to protect Debbie
0:27:58 Sy.
0:27:59 Go find your own niche, people.
0:28:00 I think it’s the moral of the story there.
0:28:01 But you like games.
0:28:02 You like spreadsheets.
0:28:05 Any other product categories that people should have on their radar?
0:28:12 I probably do about 10 or 15 different things, and that is the part of the key of diversification
0:28:16 because you want to have sales going every month of the year, year-round.
0:28:19 I don’t want to just do well for one holiday or whatever.
0:28:25 So I do things like hand prints, like hand print art for little kids, like toddlers.
0:28:26 It’s really cute.
0:28:28 I do some spreadsheets.
0:28:33 I do canva templates, some for businesses, some for regular people.
0:28:35 I do photo collages.
0:28:37 I do fillable trackers.
0:28:40 Where people would upload their own pictures and you turn it into a collage?
0:28:42 They turn it into a collage.
0:28:43 It’s DIY.
0:28:45 I don’t get involved in anything.
0:28:48 But yes, I’ll create a template of blank frames.
0:28:54 It could be a number or a letter or whatever, and then you can upload your own pictures
0:28:58 in there or so you could do something for pets.
0:29:00 I haven’t really done that, but I do that.
0:29:01 You could do that sort of thing.
0:29:03 Oh, but you know what I saw?
0:29:08 So in Canva Pro, they have all these photo effects on, I forget what even the, which
0:29:14 part of the menu or this is, but I turn your image into a hand-drawn animation or I will
0:29:18 turn this into kind of like an anime-looking thing or I will cartoonify it.
0:29:21 It’s like, I guarantee there are people on Fiverr selling this as a service.
0:29:25 You upload this file and five minutes later, they have sent you the thing.
0:29:26 It’s like no work required.
0:29:31 You’d already paid for your Canva Pro license, and now you’re just selling this thing over
0:29:32 and over again.
0:29:34 So another business idea for you.
0:29:35 Yeah.
0:29:36 No, that’s great.
0:29:39 It’s like I started very, very simple.
0:29:44 I started with printables, you know, one or two pages and my design skills were not that
0:29:49 good and my head would explode if I was trying to learn too much.
0:29:50 So I didn’t.
0:29:52 So I just did easy stuff.
0:29:55 And then after three or four months, I then do something else.
0:29:59 And then a month later, I learned something else.
0:30:05 And by taking this little baby steps, I just keep improving my skills and broadening the
0:30:09 breadth of what I do, but you have to take baby steps.
0:30:10 Yeah, absolutely.
0:30:15 And do you have to do anything with Etsy ads or primarily relying on just organic Etsy
0:30:16 search?
0:30:17 Right.
0:30:18 Pretty much organic search.
0:30:26 So I did not use any Etsy ads until after 18 months, maybe 19th or 20th month, but only
0:30:29 on like a couple of items and only a little bit.
0:30:31 So you can do this organically.
0:30:35 So let me just tell you what I ended up getting.
0:30:41 So it does take some time, but I hit $750 in month six.
0:30:47 And then about my one year mark, slightly later, maybe like 12 and a half months or something,
0:30:50 I was at $1,000 a month.
0:30:54 And then I think around 18 months, I was at 2,000.
0:30:57 And then a month or two later, it was 3,000.
0:31:00 And now I’m over 4,000 per month.
0:31:04 So it’s kind of like I’m picturing that chart that’s kind of starting to accelerate a little
0:31:05 bit.
0:31:06 Yeah, forward.
0:31:07 Yes, exactly.
0:31:11 And this is not the only thing I do or not the only way I make money.
0:31:16 So if I was spending even more time on it, I could probably do much better.
0:31:17 But it’s just, it’s fun.
0:31:18 It’s cathartic.
0:31:23 Like I said, I had to get over the whole blood pressure thing.
0:31:25 And I was like, I want to do stuff I enjoy.
0:31:28 It turned out I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
0:31:33 It taps into my creative side, even though I’m not very creative.
0:31:36 My design skills have gotten much better over time.
0:31:37 Well, I’m excited for you.
0:31:41 And this is the mark of a good episode for me when I hang up and like, I should totally
0:31:42 go do that.
0:31:46 Like, you know, it’s just, I know it’s the result of a lot of consistent effort and being
0:31:49 really intentional and targeting the right keywords and everything.
0:31:52 But, you know, when you start to see those results, you start to see that flywheel spin
0:31:53 in.
0:31:54 Oh, you know, it gets exciting there.
0:31:59 And so I want to point out Debbie’s got you a free start your Etsy shop challenge that
0:32:01 will link up in the show notes for this episode.
0:32:06 It’ll be side hustle nation dot com slash Debbie to since this is her second appearance.
0:32:11 Debbie to again, that’s your free start your Etsy shop challenge, which will link up for
0:32:13 you and encourage you to go check that out.
0:32:18 We’ll be right back with rounds two and three with Debbie right after this.
0:32:22 We’re at our local street fair last month and my kids are like magnets to any of these
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0:32:30 And one of those booths happens to be one of the big name brand wireless carriers.
0:32:35 So the woman asks me as the kids are collecting their little trinket prize, are you a customer
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0:32:40 And I have to say, no, I’m actually on Mitt mobile and have been for a long time.
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0:35:09 All right, we’re back with Debbie from TheFloringGirl.com.
0:35:10 Round two is donate a business idea.
0:35:13 This is something that you might start yourself if you had more time.
0:35:15 This is something that ought to exist in the world.
0:35:19 This is something you think listeners could start if they were so inclined.
0:35:24 What I would do, and I’ve been meaning to do forever, and you will laugh at this because
0:35:28 it’s very original, I would love to do a podcast, okay?
0:35:36 So I really got started making money online while listening to you and Pat Flynn and some
0:35:37 others.
0:35:40 It gave me the motivation when I was at my low point.
0:35:43 So I always had wanted to do something like that.
0:35:44 What would your show be about?
0:35:49 It would probably be about making money online or entrepreneurship or something like that.
0:35:57 I actually, this is so sad, I actually started one, so I recorded I think four episodes and
0:36:01 I had a plan to do it, but then life got haywire.
0:36:06 So I was having a conversation the other day with one of my good friends who I had coached
0:36:10 and taught SEO many, many years ago, and she’s doing really, really great.
0:36:14 But she just asked us on this phone call, this momentum group we have, “Do you guys
0:36:17 think it still makes sense to blog?
0:36:19 Can you still make good money blogging?”
0:36:25 And all of us paused, and we all said, “Yes, but…”
0:36:27 “Yes, but…”
0:36:29 “Yeah, but it depends.”
0:36:35 And so my answer was clearly you can make money online blogging because I have made
0:36:36 a lot of it, right?
0:36:40 I know plenty of other people that have, and I know it’s more challenging.
0:36:47 But if I think about where things are now versus where they were in 2016, which is when
0:36:53 I kind of had this whole have to start over sort of thing, there have been so many more
0:36:59 things that have become so much more popular or have become very popular.
0:37:05 Whether it’s podcasting or YouTube would be something I would recommend to other people,
0:37:10 but not for me, because I hate being – I’m sorry, I made an exception for you, but I
0:37:15 almost never go on video because I just – I hate it.
0:37:18 I hate seeing myself on the left-hand side.
0:37:22 I’m trying to look at you and not at me, but it’s too distracting.
0:37:25 See, the secret is I’m off in my notes.
0:37:26 I’m off in another tab.
0:37:31 I don’t see the video until – and even then, I don’t really watch it by video person.
0:37:33 She puts it all up on YouTube, so I’m sure there’s times I forget.
0:37:35 I’m like picking my nose or something.
0:37:36 I don’t know.
0:37:38 No, I totally know what you mean.
0:37:44 But I started doing some live meetings where I could be behind my slides, and that worked
0:37:46 really well because I wasn’t distracted.
0:37:52 I wasn’t looking at myself and wondering about my hair or anything like that.
0:37:55 So I think that those are great opportunities for people.
0:37:57 If you feel comfortable doing it, do it.
0:38:00 But then I said, “It depends on what you like doing.
0:38:07 But now, I’m getting really jazzed up by Etsy because it’s visual and creative in
0:38:14 a different way than I’ve done for the last, I don’t know, eight or 10 or 15 years.”
0:38:16 It’s just that’s what interests me right now.
0:38:18 So I think it depends.
0:38:21 What medium do you feel comfortable in?
0:38:22 Is it writing?
0:38:26 Is it doing creative products or digital products?
0:38:27 Or is it doing YouTube?
0:38:29 Or is it doing podcasting?
0:38:33 Whatever energizes you is what you should do.
0:38:38 I mean, you hear all those people, what brings you joy, all that sort of stuff.
0:38:43 But I think it’s true because you’re going to keep doing it.
0:38:48 You can’t just choose something because it’s going to make you money.
0:38:53 You have to choose something because you like it, and it happens to make you money.
0:38:54 That’s how I see it.
0:38:55 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:38:56 All right.
0:38:57 Well, you heard it here first.
0:39:01 The upcoming Debbie Gartner show is coming to a podcast player near you.
0:39:03 We’re looking forward to checking that out.
0:39:07 I think, I mean, it’s probably similar to these Etsy products.
0:39:12 It’s trying to find that niche that resonates with the right target audience, the right
0:39:13 listeners.
0:39:17 Obviously, it’s more crowded today than it was in 2013 when the sign-off show started,
0:39:21 but there were already lots of entrepreneurship podcasts at that time.
0:39:27 I think why the show worked and worked is very relative in terms of the download chart in
0:39:33 the first few years, but it was you niche down into that side hustle specific type of
0:39:34 space.
0:39:35 I don’t know.
0:39:36 For some reason, that resonated.
0:39:42 Obviously, there’s some survivorship bias to that, but it’s a very difficult platform
0:39:45 to try and grow from scratch.
0:39:50 But the people who tune in are there with you for the long haul.
0:39:52 They’re often completionists, I kind of call it.
0:39:55 If you start an episode, you’re likely to listen to the end where it’s like you look
0:39:58 at the drop-off on YouTube videos, like, “How many people?
0:40:00 I lose half the people in 30 seconds.”
0:40:01 That’s considered good.
0:40:05 You’re like, “Dang, the attention span is crazy.”
0:40:10 But the relationships that you can build and try to climb what I call the listener pyramid
0:40:16 from strangers at the bottom to listeners, to subscribers, to fans, and with every piece
0:40:20 of content that you create, try and elevate people on that pyramid.
0:40:24 Unfortunately, the biggest section, the base of the pyramid is strangers, people who don’t
0:40:25 know you exist.
0:40:28 There’s a lot to play on that discovery side.
0:40:30 YouTube is a part of that.
0:40:34 You have a little bit of an existing audience through the email list, who I’m sure would
0:40:37 love to tune into you and just hear, “What am I working on?”
0:40:44 I enjoy checking out your emails and saying, “Well, what’s the latest and what’s working?
0:40:45 What’s not working?
0:40:46 What kind of challenges are going on?”
0:40:47 Right.
0:40:51 One of the fundamental things I learned in marketing a long, long time ago is build
0:40:55 unbreakable bonds with your audience.
0:40:58 So the question is, how will you do that?
0:41:04 As an example on Etsy, which I’m now doing, and I just told you I enjoy, a lot of people
0:41:09 will come in and buy a product, and then you never hear from them again, right?
0:41:15 But when you have an email list, which really honestly needs to be phase two, then you can
0:41:18 keep connecting with them over and over again, right?
0:41:24 I have an email list from my blog about making money online, and I used to publish all my
0:41:31 income reports, and people became very interested in that, and I have some of the same subscribers.
0:41:37 Actually, some of them came from your show in 2019, and they remind me.
0:41:39 I’ve been with you since that podcast with Nick.
0:41:40 Sure, sure.
0:41:44 I didn’t know who the heck you were, but I liked what you had to say, so I’m sure that
0:41:49 happens with other people, but you have to build that audience and keep connecting with
0:41:50 them.
0:41:53 So on Etsy, that is now my next step.
0:41:59 I’m trying to create an audience from there on some of the topics that they are already
0:42:02 interested in, and I am too, and build an email.
0:42:04 So I started that on July 9th.
0:42:08 Does Etsy give you the customer information, like you’re able to remark and say, “Hey,
0:42:12 we came out with a new product that is semi-related to what you already bought.
0:42:13 Come check it out.”
0:42:14 Exactly.
0:42:15 That’s the key.
0:42:17 You need to narrow it down to one topic.
0:42:24 So if you’re a shop like I am, where you may have a multitude of things for different
0:42:29 types of people or different types of needs, you can’t just do a random email list.
0:42:34 So I started one on games because I don’t even know how many games I have, but I know
0:42:41 I have more than 250, so I might have close to 300, so I’m starting a list on that.
0:42:49 I started that almost three months ago, I think 85 days ago, and I am at, as of yesterday,
0:42:53 I was at 275 people on there.
0:42:58 People joining through their transactions, they get added to that database, they get
0:42:59 added to that list.
0:43:00 Yeah, exactly.
0:43:07 So you can’t just automatically add them to your list, that’s against Etsy’s terms,
0:43:11 but you can have them opt into something and get them on that way.
0:43:13 So I’m experimenting with that.
0:43:19 It does seem to be driving some more sales, but it’s honestly a little bit soon to really
0:43:24 tell, but I can see there’s a share and save link, and I can see the sales going through
0:43:29 there and it’s going up and up, but I really want to wait until the end of the year to
0:43:33 really analyze the impact on that.
0:43:39 And then from there, I will probably at some point create a Shopify store that’s my own,
0:43:42 and I can market in both places.
0:43:48 What’s the opt-in, or how do you incentivize people to get on the list after making a purchase?
0:43:53 You give them a free something that’s related to the something that they already bought.
0:44:00 So when I looked at my data, I don’t know, a month and a half ago or something, among
0:44:06 the people that were seeing that, because I didn’t put the, like if I was doing games,
0:44:11 I would not put that in hand prints, it just makes no sense, right?
0:44:16 So if I looked at the games, 8.5% were opting in.
0:44:17 That’s pretty strong.
0:44:20 Yeah, I was pretty happy with that, considering that they’re loyal to Etsy and they don’t
0:44:22 know who that guy I am, right?
0:44:23 Right, yeah.
0:44:24 Okay.
0:44:27 So you can’t add them automatically, but you got to give them some reason to, and it’s,
0:44:30 I feel like it used to be more common with Amazon, I don’t know if they’ve cracked down
0:44:33 on it or they’re just like, the packaging has changed, but you used to see those like
0:44:39 product slips, register your product or you don’t get a free bonus and it’s like, well,
0:44:43 I know exactly how you, I know exactly what gave your plan, or you try to give me onto
0:44:47 your list so you could hopefully wean yourself off of Amazon and you said, maybe, well, that’s
0:44:52 phase three is, you know, phase one, Etsy, phase two, email is phase three, maybe it’s
0:44:53 your own store.
0:44:56 We can start to drive your own demand and traffic.
0:44:57 Exactly.
0:45:03 That’s my plan and that was my initial plan when I joined Etsy and I was going to get
0:45:07 them onto my home décor email list, but it didn’t work.
0:45:12 But that doesn’t mean the idea doesn’t work because the idea does work.
0:45:15 It just, that idea did not work for me.
0:45:16 Fair.
0:45:17 All right.
0:45:18 So we got a little bit sidetracked in a good way.
0:45:22 So if they are around, round two was the donate a business idea that was to start a podcast,
0:45:27 somewhat of a, like a difficult thing to turn into a business, but can be a really powerful
0:45:28 relationship builder.
0:45:31 It can be, you know, maybe a content marketing channel for some underlying business because
0:45:37 it was years to be totally truthful, like before the direct revenue from the sponsorships
0:45:41 in my case turned into what would be close to a full-time income from the show.
0:45:43 But I’m still very bullish on podcasting.
0:45:45 I think there’s a lot of upside.
0:45:48 It’s, you know, really powerful and fun place to play.
0:45:53 Obviously, you know, it’s been 600 episodes, still love doing it and have no plans to go
0:45:54 anywhere.
0:45:55 So that’s round two.
0:45:56 Round three is our triple threat.
0:45:59 The first part of this is a marketing tactic that’s working now.
0:46:02 It doesn’t have to be Etsy related, but what have you got for us here?
0:46:03 Okay.
0:46:07 I’m trying to do things that are simple and easy for me.
0:46:13 So I try to find things that enhance and improve the productivity of what I’m doing.
0:46:19 And so for that, I’ve been using a lot of AI and trying to really think about the prompts
0:46:22 that work to help me generate the games that I create.
0:46:29 So I use chat GPT, I use Claude AI, and I use Gemini as well.
0:46:33 I’m hoping soon to get into mid-journey as well.
0:46:36 So I just, I don’t do tools for tool sake.
0:46:42 I do tools that enable me to do what I’m already doing better or faster.
0:46:43 So those are the things I’m using.
0:46:44 Okay.
0:46:47 So we can put those down on the tools front.
0:46:52 And then what kind of prompts are you feeling like asking for product ideas?
0:46:56 You know, we talked earlier about like asking them to help you come up with the trivia
0:46:58 questions in that example, but anything else?
0:46:59 Right.
0:47:06 So AI is not good for telling you how important or relevant stuff is, but they’re good for
0:47:12 once you’ve determined that to then feed into the input of what you want to create.
0:47:20 So I may say, you know, give me 20 questions and answers about XYZ, whatever XYZ is, I may
0:47:26 also be more specific and be, you know, more targeted, like for kids or for teachers or
0:47:31 for senior adults, whatever the different thing is.
0:47:33 So I do that.
0:47:38 And then I just try to refine those more and more to get more specific.
0:47:41 And I’ll just rinse and repeat and do that.
0:47:42 All right.
0:47:47 I will add those as our recommended tools to check out if you’re not already using those
0:47:51 and you’ve been playing around more and more myself, like with different prompts to try
0:47:53 and prime it in the right way.
0:47:57 And what’s really interesting is, I mean, it probably knows who you are.
0:48:00 It probably knows some interesting things about you because I can prime it like, “Hey,
0:48:04 you are Nick Loper from Side Hospitalation, and you need to accomplish this goal.”
0:48:08 And it’s just, and it kind of starts to do it in your tone.
0:48:09 It’s really interesting.
0:48:15 Anything on the marketing tactic, either driving traffic, driving sales, anything there that
0:48:16 we should know about?
0:48:21 So instead of just finding new customers, it’s how do you get the customers to be more
0:48:25 and more loyal and buy more things from you?
0:48:31 So instead of trying to drive as many people as I can to my email list, I want to get the
0:48:38 highest quality people on my email list, regardless of what the email list is.
0:48:46 So on Etsy, there are some people as an example that say, “Oh, often here to get 20% off your
0:48:47 next sale.”
0:48:50 And you can do that, but those people are not loyal.
0:48:52 They’re just shoppers, right?
0:48:55 They’re not loyal customers to you.
0:49:01 So I’m going after people that have already bought something, and then I’m trying to keep
0:49:06 in touch with my people, so they want to buy more and more.
0:49:09 And I try to also do loyalty discounts.
0:49:16 So if someone buys a product from me, then they may get a discount off of the next product
0:49:17 from me.
0:49:23 So for example, I do a lot of challenges, and I’ve teamed up with my good friend Sasha,
0:49:28 and we do a bunch of, we’re now doing Etsy challenges, but I’ve done challenges of various
0:49:31 sorts, whether it’s SEO or blogging, it doesn’t really matter.
0:49:32 Oh, that’s great.
0:49:36 But you do like 30 things in 30 days or something like that, right?
0:49:40 It just keeps you going, and it motivates you as a group.
0:49:46 So we will take something like that, and then the first time it may cost $49, but the second
0:49:50 time you get a $20 discount, so it’s only $29.
0:49:53 I want to reward the people that have rewarded me.
0:49:54 I like that.
0:49:56 I think that’s really important to remember.
0:50:01 It’s so much easier and less expensive to sell something extra to somebody who already
0:50:08 knows and trusts you than to convert a new subscriber, customer, visitor, viewer, totally
0:50:09 from scratch.
0:50:12 That’s probably an important reminder for me, it’s like, “Oh, how do we get more paid
0:50:13 views?
0:50:14 How do we get more?”
0:50:15 It’s like, “Well, there’s already this existing audience.
0:50:16 How do we better serve them?”
0:50:18 I think that’s an important reminder for sure.
0:50:19 Yeah.
0:50:20 Yeah.
0:50:21 What do they need?
0:50:22 What do they want?
0:50:23 What resonates well with them?
0:50:29 How can you use their ideas to create new podcast episodes for you, and how can I use
0:50:32 that to generate new product ideas?
0:50:33 Yeah.
0:50:34 I like this loyalty discount.
0:50:37 I’m sure there’s a way to filter the email.
0:50:39 It’s everybody who’s stuck around for more than a year.
0:50:42 Could you send them some, “Hey, thanks so much for being part of this community for
0:50:43 over a year.”
0:50:44 Oh, yeah.
0:50:46 Here’s some special deal, something I have.
0:50:47 That’s a great idea.
0:50:48 That’s a great idea.
0:50:50 That’s one way to do it.
0:50:53 Another way to do it is, I use Active Campaign.
0:50:57 I’m not sure if you’re still using that or not, but everything that people bought for
0:50:58 me is tagged.
0:50:59 Yeah.
0:51:00 Yeah.
0:51:01 So I know what everyone bought.
0:51:06 So I will sometimes do emails that only go to people that bought this product or that
0:51:07 product.
0:51:11 That’s one thing I don’t like about Etsy, is you can’t control that.
0:51:12 Etsy owns the customer.
0:51:13 Yeah.
0:51:15 Amazon owns the customer.
0:51:16 You don’t.
0:51:20 So you want to create those unbreakable bonds with your customer.
0:51:23 That’s why I ultimately want to get them off of Etsy.
0:51:30 I will still use Etsy as my prime way to get things out there, because they have such
0:51:34 a huge audience and bigger than I will ever be able to build.
0:51:41 But they can bring in a steady pipeline of email subscribers to me to keep building.
0:51:42 Totally.
0:51:47 So then I don’t have to worry about things like Google algorithm changing or Pinterest
0:51:50 algorithm changing or Instagram, like whatever it is.
0:51:52 It doesn’t really matter.
0:51:56 They are loyal to me, and that is what I want.
0:51:57 Totally.
0:52:02 That’s the ultimate way to protect yourself against algorithm changes, whatever update
0:52:03 that may happen.
0:52:08 You run into trouble there, but if you have some level of loyalty and a database of customers
0:52:11 that you can communicate with directly, you’re in a much safer place.
0:52:12 That’s right.
0:52:13 It was interesting.
0:52:18 My yoga studio just sent me this because I had just turned a year of being a member
0:52:19 there.
0:52:20 It was a lucky birthday.
0:52:22 You’ve been a member for a year now.
0:52:25 Your membership is now 10% off, and it was unexpected.
0:52:26 It was really kind of surprising.
0:52:31 I don’t know if they filtered that by who was actually going to classes because I imagine
0:52:34 if you trigger that to somebody who hadn’t been going, they might be like, “Oh, shoot.
0:52:37 I should probably cancel that,” but in my case, they’re like, “Oh, I’ve been using it.”
0:52:38 I was like, “Oh, wow.
0:52:39 I didn’t…”
0:52:40 Now I’m talking about it.
0:52:44 It was kind of an unexpected thing, and sure enough, it hit the statement that was 10%
0:52:45 off.
0:52:47 So in those loyalty discounts, I think that’s a really interesting one.
0:52:48 Let’s wrap it up here.
0:52:50 This is your favorite book from the last 12 months.
0:52:51 Okay.
0:52:56 So I don’t read books anymore, but I’ll choose one that I would like to read, and I think
0:53:00 will help a lot of people, which is, I heard, do you know Mo Raca?
0:53:01 Yeah, I know that name.
0:53:03 He’s like a TV celebrity or something.
0:53:04 I don’t really know.
0:53:10 But he has, I heard him talking on the radio about, what is it, rocked o’ generions.
0:53:17 So it’s basically people that got started or got restarted or pivoted in their life when
0:53:19 they were older.
0:53:25 Older in his mind was like ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s.
0:53:27 They might have started new businesses.
0:53:33 They might have started new hobbies that had an impact, and I think it’s so inspiring.
0:53:38 And I meet so many people that need to restart their life.
0:53:39 I myself did.
0:53:44 I had to do it once in my 30s and once in my 40s, and it’s hard.
0:53:48 So the older you get, the harder it is, you get set in your ways.
0:53:54 But I love the idea that you can really start anything at any time, as long as you have
0:53:56 the passion and the drive to do it.
0:54:01 All right, rocked o’ generions, late in life, debuts, comebacks, and triumphs.
0:54:03 We’ll link that up in the show notes.
0:54:08 I mean, you probably see the thing like, oh, Ray Kroc started when he was however old.
0:54:10 Colonel Sanders started when he was however old.
0:54:14 These people who, in our mind, like, well, you’ve got to be in your 20s to start a thing
0:54:15 successful.
0:54:17 It’s like, well, you’re never too late to do this stuff.
0:54:18 Yes, there it is.
0:54:22 And not only that, I think that when you do it when you’re a little bit older, you have
0:54:27 your own experiences that can actually make you more successful.
0:54:32 So a lot of people that I know that have been successful, even online, have been older.
0:54:38 They have been in their 40s, 50s, 60s, that sort of thing, because they have experience
0:54:40 that they bring from somewhere else.
0:54:42 It all translates there.
0:54:43 Very, very good.
0:54:44 Debbie, it’s been awesome.
0:54:47 We should do it more frequently than every five years.
0:54:48 It’s been awesome to have you back.
0:54:50 The flooringirl.com is where you can find her.
0:54:57 Check out the Start Your Etsy Shop Challenge, which we’ll link up in the show notes, sidehustlelation.com/debbie2,
0:54:59 or just follow the link in the episode description.
0:55:00 It’ll get you over there.
0:55:04 If you like this printables model, we’ve got another episode on the printables business
0:55:09 that is 449 in your archives, and if you want more Debbie in your life, you can check out
0:55:11 our original episode from 2019.
0:55:12 That’s number 362.
0:55:14 You can scroll down a little bit to find that one.
0:55:15 We’re talking SEO.
0:55:16 We’re talking Pinterest.
0:55:17 We’re talking affiliate income.
0:55:20 All for the flooringirl site in that one.
0:55:24 If you haven’t got yours yet, I want to invite you to grab your own personalized side hustle
0:55:25 show playlist at hustle.show.
0:55:29 All you got to do is answer a few short multiple choice questions.
0:55:30 You do it on your phone.
0:55:33 It’s going to ask you about your side hustle interests and goals, and then it’s going to
0:55:38 recommend eight to 10 episodes to add to your device and what to listen to next.
0:55:40 Hustle.show, for that, that is it for me.
0:55:42 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:55:46 If you find in value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend, fire
0:55:49 off that text message, “Hey, let’s crank up that Etsy shop.”
0:55:52 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen, and I’ll catch you in the
0:55:54 next edition of the side hustle show.